Tophat665

Who will you vote for? Dean in the Primary, and, if that works out, Dean in the election, if not, whoever the Democratic nominee is. Now in answer to those who say thatDean is unacceptably angry, I say that any person who looks at the state of the world to day and isn't furious isn't perceptive enough to be running the country.

Do you always vote for a specific party? I have always voted for the Democratic candidate for President. I have voted for Republicans twice since 1992, once for John Warner for Senate (never again) and once for some nameless fellow who was running against a Green for a State assembly seat.

What persuades you? If I they aren't Bush and don't support him, they have my vote. Unless they're Green.

What do you look for in a candidate? An intelligent take on the world's problems and the country's. A willingness to say what's on their mind. Mostly, though, at this point, they need a heartbeat and the ability to beat Bush.

Do you want Bush to be re-elected? Hell No!

Why/why not? Without rehashing all the arguments I have made over the last 4 yers, I think he's dishonest, criminally fiscally irresponsible, corrupt, cowardly, unable to consider consequences when taking action, a closet theocrat with a hypocritical theology, holier than thou, self righteous, unscrupulous, and, if not actually evil himself, possessed of a penchant for surrounding himself with evil men. Which I'm sure convinces no one of anything. His words and actions demonstrate to me that he either cares not a whit for this country and its people, or what he believes to be the right things for this country are at best pointless or at worst ruinous in my view. I believe he is leading us into the 20th century again, and we've done that already. His fiscal policy (if selling the country to ones cronies can really be called such) is going to bankrupt this country, and, even if stopped in January, may well set us up for the kind of economic collapse this country hasn't seen in 75 years. Those campaign promises he hasn't blown off as too expensive are either indicative of a deeply selfish and flawed vision, or designed to fail. Enough! If you can think of anything else bad to say about him, feel free to consider that I said it. He is the wrong man at the wrong time for all time.

What views do you feel strongly about? Basic fairness. Social Justice. A person's right to do as they wish with their body. That the first Amendment should be no more limited than it is now, and perhaps strenghtened, the fourth and fourteenth have been raped, and the second could us a bit of limitation (say, on par with the first.) I believe pollution is slow murder, that health care should be a federal service, that drugs are a health issue, not a criminal one, that welfare reform is all fine and well so long as it applies to businesses as well as poor people, that money is not speech, corporations are not legal persons, and that the group that miscalls themselves the religious right is neither, but is entirely too powerful.

Do you want soemone who has a sense of humor? Irrelevant. A president's sense of humor can only come through in a thoroughly sanitized way, and if that is the sense of humor that actually resides in the individual, I want no port of it.

Would you like to see a woman- even a coloured woman take the position? In principal, yes. In reality, there is not a single female politician with even a whisker's chance of winning that I would want running the local dog catcher's office, let alone the country. Including Hillary.

Do you feel that religion/beliefs should be the backbone of a President's views/motives/actions? No, and I think that a president who drags his god into the Whitehouse to the degree that it dictates his policy (rather than informs it - I can live with that) is de facto establishing his religion in direct contravention of the constitution, and therefore should be taken out back and crucified by the Supreme court with the secret service driving in the nails.

George W. Bush was not elected president, and should not be elected a first time. And I don't believe he will be, however, I would be ruefully unsurprised if it turned out he did it anyway, just like he did last time.

I may or may not argue this post. If you want specifics, start a thread on something specific, and if it interests me I'll post there.

__________________
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