Voting for President, for the wrong reasons?

[Eddie Teach]

Yellow dude with a black sheet wrapped around his head doesn't cut it.

[Razgovory]

They are already black, they are just in yellow-face.

[DGuller]

Yellow dude with a black sheet wrapped around his head doesn't cut it.

This is a multi-purpose smiley.  In this case, it signifies a nefarious explanation. 

[Ed Anger]

Obama is the 3rd term of Bush. And like all great tv shows, has jumped the shark.

[OttoVonBismarck]

I just made the mistake of reading a couple of Israeli articles about American elections, or American articles from concerned Jews.  Ugh, utterly disgusting.  One of the idiots even went so far as to accuse Obama of lacking professionalism for not putting aside his personal antisemitism when dealing with Israel.  What Israelis are going to get for their effort is a massive backlash, and it's going to be fully deserved.

Look, someone born in the Old World with a streak of Jew hating in them, surprise surprise.

[MadImmortalMan]

You like centrist and moderate but you're supporting a candidate whose policy positions are neither.  I don't believe that there's a real Mitt who is actually a conviction moderate who would pass universal healthcare, but better; manage Afghanistan, but better; do stimulus, but better.  In my view if he's not his views are very conservative, if he is then he's been lying constantly for these past six years and doesn't deserve to be in office.

Going back some pages, but this jumped out at me. I can't imagine such a thing as a moderate who would pass universal healthcare. That's an issue wholly owned by the left over here.

[OttoVonBismarck]

I will have to say the last two elections I've cared about the least of any in my life. Not because I have no opinion on the candidates, but because I don't really care about either result.

With Obama-McCain, I wanted McCain to win but knew early on he would not. I figured McCain would be a little farther right than Obama on domestic policy and would be pretty solid in foreign policy. My prediction is that McCain's well known bellicose nature would be used to his advantage, and he'd actually be a lot more of a Nixonian style diplomat whose image didn't quite sync up with his actual activity. Unlike a lot of the "frenzied left" I had read Obama's actual opinions and policies. The guy was a moderate, period. I think some people were dreaming that he was a closet deep-lefty who was just aping moderation to get elected, but I just didn't see it. His life and positions were more an open book than almost any other candidate we've had, I'd have been really shocked if Obama turned out to be a far out lefty. On foreign policy I was a little worried about Obama as he was too far left in some regards on that front, but I suspected when he sat down and started getting his daily intelligence briefings his opinions would change.

What I didn't see is not only did Obama back off his more idealistic lefty view on foreign policy he basically became an aggressive warmongering type, probably more likely to engage in open war with Iran or Pakistan than any American President in the last half century. At the very least he's just bombed the shit out of a ton of countries where we had no real permission to do so and had not in any way established any sort of formal hostilities with them.

But because I didn't feel the real outcome was that different between McCain and Obama, I wasn't really too concerned. [I also did not think Obama would be able to pass healthcare reform, so I was surprised on that front.] With Obama and McCain I now pretty much know Obama is a moderate, slightly right-wing if not far right on foreign policy, who seems to be a piss poor administrator and with no real clear direction or drive on domestic or foreign policy (other than blow stuff up and kill people.) I won't be happy with a second Obama term but nor will I really be happy with a Romney first term, so I'm left pretty disinterested in the actual results on election day.

Romney's appeal is he did a decent job in Massachusetts and worked well with Democrats there to get things done. I think on the Federal level ideological battle lines are drawn too strictly, hypo-President Romney will be unallowed to compromise or his caucus will abandon him and without compromise the Dems won't work with him. Whatever his real motives he's going to be a prisoner of the dysfunctional GOP party politics. There's a good article in the Atlantic actually that speculates a Romney Presidency could just be the battleground for the inevitable clash between all the factions in the Republican party. The clash will implode Romney's Presidency and he'll be a Carter-esque President

[Queequeg]

Look, someone born in the Old World with a streak of Jew hating in them, surprise surprise.

DGuller is Jewish.  I'm not sure if you realize that and are just being sarcastic.

[DGuller]

I just made the mistake of reading a couple of Israeli articles about American elections, or American articles from concerned Jews.  Ugh, utterly disgusting.  One of the idiots even went so far as to accuse Obama of lacking professionalism for not putting aside his personal antisemitism when dealing with Israel.  What Israelis are going to get for their effort is a massive backlash, and it's going to be fully deserved.

Look, someone born in the Old World with a streak of Jew hating in them, surprise surprise.

Considering that my family left the Old World due to being Jewish, and a significant part of it went to Israel, your little squirt of verbal diarrhea is a little off the mark.

[derspiess]

Self-hating atheist Jews are not an unheard of phenomenon.  Not saying it's necessarily true in this case.

[Queequeg]

Not totally sure how many non-Jewish Russian immigrant accountants there are in New Jersey. 

[DGuller]

Self-hating atheist Jews are not an unheard of phenomenon.  Not saying it's necessarily true in this case.

I hate bigotry, and Jews are not immune from it.

[DGuller]

Not totally sure how many non-Jewish Russian immigrant accountants there are in New Jersey.

[Queequeg]

Not totally sure how many non-Jewish Russian immigrant accountants there are in New Jersey.

I'm just saying.  It's kind of weird to assume you are an anti-Semite, given that there's statistically significant odds that you are Jewish by profession and area of origin.  You'd probably be better off not barking up that tree, at least.

[DGuller]

Not totally sure how many non-Jewish Russian immigrant accountants there are in New Jersey.

I'm just saying.  It's kind of weird to assume you are an anti-Semite, given that there's statistically significant odds that you are Jewish by profession and area of origin.  You'd probably be better off not barking up that tree, at least.

I'M NOT AN ACCOUNTANT!!!