How will Louisville Hotbytes vote in the Election?

Let's see if we can predict the election with an ongoing poll and discussion.

As much as I hate to say it, this may be the first election since I was 18 that I may sit out. I'm not happy with either candidate. It seems like the quality of Presidential candidates gets worse every year, to the the point where I don't vote passionately, I vote for the one least likely to screw up my situation or take more of my money.

I'm voting third party.

[Robin Garr]

My vote should be evident from my local on the forum moniker at right: I think Crescent Hill/Clifton, the Highlands and Germantown (Louisville's Uppah West Side) is going to go Obama by something like 90 to 10. You can't walk down a street in our neighborhood without seeing an Obama sign in almost every single yard and a sticker on every car, and we're still three full months from the election.

Trying to keep this civil, friendly and upbeat and hoping that this thread won't go south and have to be killed, I personally feel that:

1) The President needs to be sharp, but he is really in large part a figurehead. Certainly no one has ever credited the incumbent with a high IQ. I think we're in a time of vast national polarization when a charismatic, inspiring leader may be able to help pull us together again. Frankly, I think an Obama election would go a long way to help wipe out at least a little of the racial tension that remains in our country more than 140 years after the Civil War. And I think he would bring to the White House much the same sort of good things as did FDR and JFK, two other charismatic guys with big ideas who didn't really have all that much experience but who inspired big ideas and encouraged the American public to go after them. It's been 48 years since JFK. It's time.

2) I really do believe that we've just suffered through the worst administration in the history of the US, dumbing billions into a foolish war fought in the wrong place for the wrong reasons at the wrong time at the same time as disproportionately cutting taxes for the rich, fostering welfare for corporations, and making life tougher for the worker and the average family. It is time for a change. It is SO time for a change. And tracking back more than 8 years to blame today's mess on the Clintons is just, I'm sorry folks, but it's just plain laughable.

dumbing billions into a foolish war

A little Fruedian slip of the typing fingers???

I absolutely agree with you. I will be voting for Obama.

However, if I was putting a large sum of money on the race, I would pick McCain. One simple reason. RACE

I'm voting third party.

This is the first time in years I'm voting non-third party.

My vote should be evident from my local on the forum moniker at right: I think Crescent Hill/Clifton, the Highlands and Germantown (Louisville's Uppah West Side) is going to go Obama by something like 90 to 10. You can't walk down a street in our neighborhood without seeing an Obama sign in almost every single yard and a sticker on every car, and we're still three full months from the election.

Right next to the 8664 sign/sticker!

I'm a lifelong democrat/progressive/feminist from a family of lifelong democrat/progressives, and like others here I'm sitting this election out, a thing I never imagined I'd do. I fully understand what brought us to this point in history, have watched (and engaged) aghast as this current administration has rampaged through history and hoodwinked and lied its way through appalling policy agendas, but this presidential campaign has also shocked and saddened me, and continues to do so on a near daily basis. As I noted to a number of friends who are struggling with this issue of whether to vote, or whom to vote for, my own approach comes from my own personal sense of how I behave in the world and how I expect others to behave toward me and to others, and also on my approach with my students. For example, if I administer an exam to two students, one of whom I like and who holds the same opinions and philosophical view points as I and one I don't like and who ascribes to opinions and philosophies I find appalling: if both students cheat, I don't pass the student I like just because I like him and fail the other just because I dislike him. I'm a little embarrassed that I failed to understand where so many Naderites were coming from 8 years ago, but I'm there now.... Not that I would have voted for Nader, because I didn't then and still don't find him qualified for the position.

Regarding the editorial that may have prompted this thread, or preceded it anyway, it's my understanding from a number of European and Canadian friends that they find our two-party system bizarre and ineffectual, and even those who keep up with American politics nearly as much as any well-informed American find it baffling that we have such fierce philosophical struggles over two parties who look essentially the same to them. For them, it comes down to not much more than a personality contest. Sadly, that's how it looks to me as well.

I will hold my nose and vote for Obama. I was a Chris Dodd supporter (I'm a big fan of the frickin' CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES) until he dropped out. Now, if Obama would choose Chris as his running mate maybe I could let go of my nose... but his stupid vote on the FISA expansion ("And going forward, some of you may decide that my FISA position is a deal breaker. That's ok.") and his "let's expand faith-based initiatives" policy, plus all this other center-triangulation (and people accused Hillary of this!) has made me absolutely ill. I hate that the Obama campaign is basically saying "you progressives and constitutionalists have no where else to go - what are you gonna do, vote for McCain? We're going to pander to the center as hard as we possibly can, and you can suck it!" It's nearly enough to make me stay home...but not quite. I have only missed one election (a primary) since I turned 18, and I just can't stay home. I won't be donating any more money to them, though. Not a penny more.

By the way: John Yarmuth, I'm pissed at you about FISA, too.

Sitting out (not voting) is not a good option. I agree that neither of these guys are great, but you have to like the ideas of one over the other, even if by only a little.

Nothing is gained by not voting.

I will vote for change.

[Robin Garr]

Right next to the 8664 sign/sticker!

You got it!

You know, in a way it surprises me how consistent these tree-hugging, granola-munching neighborhoods are on just about every issue - it's almost like the city is a bowl and all the liberals fall down into Crescent Hill and the Highlands. Great neighborhoods, but how did that happen?

I'm just tired of having to vote for the lesser of two evils. Why can't we get a REAL candidate? Someone who cares about America, and not absolute power? I want to be passionate about a candidate. I've never gotten to vote with passion, it's always been "who is going to screw me over the least?" It sucks.

As it is, over a third of my money is being taken for social security and taxes, most of which is going to programs I don't agree with. If Obama gets elected, it will be almost half.

We don't have a voice anymore. Politicians aren't scared of us. They give themselves huge raises, while the homeless beg for money, and then they have the nerve to say they understand what the American worker is going through. No they don't! They charter private jets, and vacation on private islands, and we get to pay for it. I don't care, democrat, republican, it's all complete bullcrap, and I'm so completely disillusioned. The country is going to hell, and there isn't crap we can do about it. Obama isn't going to fix it, and neither is McCain.

When did we become so whiny, PC, and litigious? When I was a kid, if I fell off my bike, my mom and dad didn't sue the bike company, they dumped peroxide on the cut, slapped a band-aid on it, and sent me out to play. My best friend fell out of our tree and broke her arm. Did her parents sue? Nope! Took her to the hospital, she got a cast, and we were out being kids the next day. It seems like you can't say ANYTHING without offending someone, today. We're all so "sensitive." I mourn for the fact that the kids today will never know the America I grew up in. Makes me think twice about wanting to bring kids into the world today.

My vote should be evident from my local on the forum moniker at right:

Now Robin, I don't think it would be fair to assume that every Crescent Hill resident is a liberal. That being said, when I ask my Volvo (maybe Subaru or VW) driving, bumper sticker touting neighbors why they like Crescent Hill they always tell me "ah, yes, Crescent Hill, the diversity!" I can hardly keep from asking, "have you looked around?" The only diversity in Crescent Hill is me. A white male republican. Pathetic.

I think Crescent Hill/Clifton, the Highlands and Germantown (Louisville's Uppah West Side) is going to go Obama by something like 90 to 10. You can't walk down a street in our neighborhood without seeing an Obama sign in almost every single yard and a sticker on every car, and we're still three full months from the election.

I will never put a political sign in my yard again. I think I'm going to celebrate the things I have in common with my neighbors (like great food!) instead of allow something as stupid as politics divide us.

An interesting point to consider. Typically, in KY, Republicans have to pay for (mail order) their yard signs so you don't see as many (there are a few free ones available early on). But GET THIS...I ordered one in the past and guess where it was shipped from? Frankfort Avenue in Louisville, Kentucky. "No big deal" you say....guess what? I called some friends in Texas, Colorado and NM....guess where their signs were shipped from? That's right, Frankfort Ave., Louisville, KY 40206! The George W. Bush PR machine seems to have been based right here in good ole Crescent Hill! Alannis Morisette wrote a song about that.

[Robin Garr]

Now Robin, I don't think it would be fair to assume that every Crescent Hill resident is a liberal. That being said, when I ask my Volvo (maybe Subaru or VW) driving, bumper sticker touting neighbors why they like Crescent Hill they always tell me "ah, yes, Crescent Hill, the diversity!" I can hardly keep from asking, "have you looked around?" The only diversity in Crescent Hill is me. A white male republican. Pathetic.

Greg, thank you for bringing diversity back to our neighborhood! We used to have a Republican on our street, but he moved out to Colorado to run some kind of survivalist thing. We do have a few African-American neighbors, but yeah, no question, the nabe is anything but diverse.

That was actually my point, though. I was asking how come all the granola-munching tree-huggers ended up in the same place! (And to my credit, I also predicted that Obama will carry the neighborhood 90-10. Not 100-0.)

Anyway, welcome, neighbor! Go ahead and put up your McCain yard sign, made in Crescent HIll by crafty entrepreneurs. I think you'll be pretty safe in assuming that none of your liberal neighbors will graffiti it or tear it down.

Added by edit: After all, politics doesn't have to be polarizing. We can talk to our neighbors who don't agree with us, just as we're doing on this forum ... we don't have to fight them. I think it's the media that makes it look like a fight.