• I’m registered unaffiliated—I would rather have a bikini wax that be a member of a political party (except for my own party that is still in the planning stage).
  
• My voting history:
  
• 2004 Bush vs. Kerry  I couldn’t stand either choice so I threw my vote at a random third party candidate.
• 2000 Bush vs. Gore   I voted for Gore. That other dude scared me.
  
• 1996 Dole Vs. Clinton I voted for Ross Perot (and yes, I find him crazy too. I just really can’t stand our two party system and when I can’t decide which candidate sucks less, I go down to the next one on the list in hopes that one day we can get enough support for another party—The Common Sense Let’s Focus On What Really Matters Party would be my choice.) 
• 1992 Bush vs. Clinton I voted for Dubya’s daddy. Had I realized that Bubba was going to turn the Oval Office into a strip club, I most certainly would have voted for that madman.
• 1988 Bush vs. Dukakis  I voted for Bush. Come on. I don’t know how even the most liberal Dem could have voted for that crazy little dude with the helmet cruising in the tank.
  
• 1984 Reagan vs. Mondale My first time in the box. Very exciting. I voted for Ronnie for no other reason that I grew up in a RED house and that’s all I knew.
  

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2008 McCain vs. Obama

My first inkling has been to go third party again as neither man really does much for me. I like that Johnny MC is a more moderate Conservative than most. But there is a long list of things I do not like about him. I like that Barack is young, fresh, energetic and bi-racial (and yes my friends still whistling Dixie, that’s a good thing). Though, there are many things I do not like about him, too. For a while I was leaning towards Bob Barr of the Libertarian Party (easy, if you research this party’s platform you’ll see they are not pro-kiddie porn and not pro-drive-by shootings….their core is smaller government, less taxes, more freedom….a nice start for my Common Sense Party….I’ll lay out my platform sometime this month.) Alas, Bob Barr’s running mate is essentially a bookie with bad gambling infomercials and that’s just stupid. Though this seemed the the best of the Third Party options, I couldn’t really take it seriously.

As much as I’ve grown to despise our inefficient two party system, this election has gotten to the point where I need to not only vote for a mainstream candidate, but step out of my comfort zone and actually stump for one. Being a Colorado resident, my battleground vote counts more than some of yours so I’ve spent a lot of time making my decision.

AND THE WINNER IS……

• First of all, I really suck at Photoshop, as you can see.
  

The reasons for my choice are rambling-ly summarized as follows:

I don’t want one party at the top for more than 8 consecutive years because that can easily turn into 16 years and that’s too much.

In 2000 I chose Gore over Bush because I believed that Al was a better man than Yosemite George. Period. It had virtually nothing to do with politics. I respect the hell out of McCain for his service to the country and his POW nightmare, but that does not qualify him to be the President. It just makes him a bad ass. Obama isn’t perfect, and he’s not necessarily a better man than McCain, but he has the best potential in my opinion to be a leader in the face of a serious shit-storm. I have no evidence to support that. All I have is my gut after hearing all each man has to say.

STATE OF THE UNION

Our country and our people have become a fat, lazy, selfish, global joke. Yes we have! Yes we have! We’ve become the New York Yankees of the world: rich, spoiled, entitled, obnoxious, and irresponsible. And we wonder why everyone hates us.

And we like to BLAME, don’t we? Those rotten banks kept giving me more credit and let me buy that house that I couldn’t afford. When are we as a people ever going to stand up and take responsibility for our shitty decisions? No one forced us to accumulate trillions of dollars of revolving debt. We just had to have that Wii and that Plasma and those $300 shoes we’ll wear twice and that closet filled with infomercial junk and that sweet Hummer parked on the street because it doesn’t fit in the garage. We’re a reactive debtor nation (government and people) with no foresight or restraint. The only issues we’ve really cared about over the last decade have been abortion, gay marriage and purchasing power.

Now we are forcing our government to piss away a trillion more dollars to try to fix our wasteful, stupid, short sited businesses and our wasteful, stupid, short-sited people (and yes, I include myself in that group). But worst of all, our wasteful, stupid, short-sited government has been the shitty parent teaching us all these wasteful, shitty habits. We have become a big fat, global joke. And if you can’t admit that, you really need to turn off those reality TV shows and read something—anything.

The United States was born as the gritty underdog that fought religious and governmental persecution and beat terrific odds to create a nation that would thrive like no other had before. But 200+ years of success have make us complacent, poorly educated, poorly governed and plagued with a total lack of perspective.

I’m sick and tired of hearing goobers that have never been outside the rural county they were born in yammer about how we live in (insert your favorite goober dialect) the greatest country in the world. You should get a passport and use it at least once before you make such a claim. We used to be the greatest country in the world—if such a statement even means anything….and in my opinion it doesn’t. But the fact is WE’VE SLIPPED. We need to collectively man-the-fuck-up and start making our country credible again. THE BANKS are not to blame. THE GOVERNMENT is not to blame. I AM TO BLAME and YOU ARE TOO BLAME. Yes you, not “the other guy.”

We ALL need to “own this.” We ALL need to cease the partisan bitch-fest. And we ALL need to focus on IMPORTANT issues for a change.

John McCain is just too old, too goofy and too yesterday to be the man to lead us to the greatness we need to find. And Sarah Palin needs to go away and go away fast. She is an absolute, frightening, dangerous JOKE. I get how all you deeply religious conservatives put abortion etc. ahead of all else (note: my mother, whom I love with all my heart falls into this category), and I get you think she is just so fantastic and “just like me,” but come on, let’s get serious here. Can we really allow Palin to sit that close to the Oval Office? If you think the answer is yes, go to You Tube and watch her Katie Couric interview and then go watch that famous Miss Teen South Carolina video. I think we US Americans would be better off with Miss Teen SC as the VP….or maybe Tina Fey. At least Tina is smart.

OK. So why Barack? Is he the most qualified person we have to run our country? Of course not. Presidential candidates never are; there in lies the rub. Our best people would never be able to tolerate our political system. Our best people wouldn’t be good enough on TV to get elected. And our best people would not be able to whore themselves enough to be able to finance their campaigns. So when I listen to McCain speak and I listen to Obama speak, my gut tells me over and over that Obama is the clear choice. Both my Left and Right friends all have strong arguments for their respective sides. The more absolute their arguments are the scarier they are, but both sides have valid points. When I look at the men (and woman) involved in this election I see one side that has a chance to help and one side that doesn’t.

I’m voting for Obama. I think we need a break from Dubya’s team…..and yes, I know Congress has been leaning left as Dub’s been driving the bus. But that doesn’t matter. If you want to be Pres you have to own the results regardless of the team you have. Dubya makes for some fantastic sound bites, but he never should have been allowed near the White House in the first place.

Now it’s the other team’s turn at bat. It seems that Obama is far enough ahead in the poles that he actually will win (if you put any credence in the poles). Now here’s a message to all you hardcore liberals. If the Dems get that magic 60 in the Senate and Barack wins—watch out. They better get shit done because it’s ON YOU if they don’t. The RED states will go ballistic and come 2012 that’s folksy gal that can see Russia from her backyard just might end up staging a mini-Iditarod on the south lawn of the White House.

The bottom line is that Presidents get more credit and more blame than the really deserve. Global economies and markets are bigger than one man, one government, or one nation. Good, bad or indifferent, wars have always been fought and always will. And the team at the top of the heap will always take the most shots from the competition. We may be floundering, but we are still perceived as residing on the top of the heap. I think it’s time we started earning that perception again. Let’s stop chanting U-S-A at rallies and start acting responsibly and productively and fix this mess.

I think Barack Obama will be our next President and I really hope he wins re-election in 2012. Why? Because if we survive this crisis, Barack will get the credit and get re-elected. If things linger or get worse, he’ll get the blame and be a one-term Pres. Despite the fact that I think we need a nice smack in the face—-I kind of hope things turn around for the better.

I’d like to be able to send my girls to college one day more than I’d like us to learn a well needed lesson.