Monday, February 11, 2008

Second Choices

The votes are in. The people have spoken. I've counted, and recounted, and I've come to the conclusion that there may be a few Republican Obamababes among us. There are 5 of us that are planning on voting for a Democrat in the primary (and by "us", I mean "you all"), but will not vote for the other democrat in the general if she (or he) ends up winning. Others of us wanted a Republican, but will vote for another party if our guy does not get the nomination. A small minority of us are Republican party loyalists. No Dem. loyalists here (or none that will own up to it).

I'm curious about people's reasons for voting for the other (or another) party if their preferred candidate does not win. I'll start.

I had already said that if Romney didn't win, and either McCain or Huckabee win then I would either sit this one out or vote Dem. I stand by that if Huckabee wins, or if he is the VP pick for McCain. If McCain wisens up and makes a good choice for VP, then I'm torn. My original reasons for not liking him were a combination of his past and current positions on things like campaign finance, drug reimportation (the pharmaceutical companies are "bad guys"), and immigration, but more because of his temperament. I thought he ran a poorly organized campaign, and became disgustingly Clintonian toward the end what with his last minute lies about Romney's Iraq position. He holds grudges, has a well documented explosive temper, and is far too much like Bush in the sense that he is stubborn about his frequently not quite thought out positions. I wanted competence and intelligence in a president for once, and it seems like what we'll be getting instead is Bush-lite. Granted, he is a respected war hero (read up on his POW stories- they really are quite impressive), and has an admirable determination to cut wasteful spending. So even with all my previous bluster about not ever voting for him (I voted with those saying they would switch to a Dem), I may still come around by november, hold my nose and vote McCain. Maybe. On the other hand, if he loses, then Romney will be well positioned to be the presumptive nominee in 2012, and if Obama (or Hillary) runs as liberal of a presidency as he is advertising, then we may very well end up with a President Romney in 4 years.

Anyone else?

4 comments:

morgan said...

I was one who said that I wouldn't vote for my candidate if my preferred candidate didn't win, which he didn't.
Honestly, I don't know what I'm going to do in November. I really feel like there's no one left that really represents my views on some very important issues. I'm not sure what my civic duty is when I don't want either candidate to be president. Ideas, anyone?

While I appreciate that McCain is willing to go against the republican party on issues where he disagrees with the consensus, for me he's picked the wrong issues to be independent on. I saw an editorial in the paper today suggesting that conservatives stop complaining and change what it means to be a conservative; it's as if they were saying, "since you don't have a candidate with all the conservative values, just change what it means to be a conservative so it matches your candidates values". That is both wrong and dumb. I don't pick my stand on issues based what the republican party says, I pick the republican party because it best lines up with my views.

I don't think McCain has much of a chance anyway unless by some miracle Clinton gets the nomination.

JonF said...

As I said in another comment, I have no loyalty to either party. I vote for people who I think will do a good job.
I voted for Romney in the primary because I disagreed with him the least of the candidates. Now I really don't know what I'm going to do. I will probably end up voting for McCain (I might even use the expression, "hold my nose and vote for McCain") despite my alleged lack of loyalty to the Republicans. Obama and Clinton are just too ecomonically, um, left.
By the way, has anybody else seen Clinton's "Economic Blueprint for the 21st Century"? What a piece of work. Maybe I'll write a review of it.

Allison Hollingsworth Deming said...

I know this is a bit late for a response, but looking at what happened in the primaries in West Virginia and a few other states, I think that Huckabee and McCain are "in bed together". Now that Romney has dropped out and Huckabee is taking the more conservative Christian types, without saying anything against McCain, I see him being the VP Nominee. That being said, I do not think they would have a chance of beating Obama...but might have a chance of beating Hillary. Not sure who I would vote for, but I am not particularly happy with any of the candidates thus far, and they all scare me in their own ways. I think that voting for the lesser of 2 or 3 evils is not what the founding father had in mind with the system (something that Paul might yack about). So there is my conspiracy theory, I should throw in my dissertation has taken me away from the TV and election news for about 2 weeks, so I may be a bit behind on my opinions, but school does tht to you.

Erin Teichert Barbuto said...

I really can't see McCain choosing Huckabee as VP. I don't think it would do any of them any good, and it just wouldn't fit. I didn't think too much about McCain until I read that article about him in Newsweek about 3 weeks ago...maybe longer. I got a better appreciation for his war record and his idea of correcting mistakes, but finding out what a temper he has (and uses) wasn't impressive.