Marc Baptiste wrote: A 37-year old, gay, liberal, San Francisco Bay Area lifelong "blue-dog" Democrat now has to do some serious thinking about whether or not to pull the lever for Obama in November.

Jason C:

QUOTE: May I ask why?  Biden is an uninspiring choice, certainly.  A bland choice that's likely to add nothing to the ticket and may even detract from it.  But I really can't imagine why anyone who describes themself as a Democrat would contemplate not voting and/or voting for McCain.  Doesn't the prospect of a McCain Presidency concern you?  I'm not saying this is your rationale, but it seems like too many Democrats have the idea that if the candidate is not perfect, or does not perfectly echo their own personal views, they do not want to support them.  Republicans seem to better grasp the concept of uniting around the person who most closely resembles their views, even if he is seriously flawed in some areas

Agreed. This, moreso than Republicans stealing the vote', is what has killed the Dems in the last two elections.

Kevin H:

QUOTE: I have long noticed this and I have a bumper-sticker sized summary: Democrats are strugglers, Republicans are winners.

Some would change 'strugglers' to 'whiners', just for the sake of a catchier bumper-sticker slogan.

QUOTE: I'd say Jason's description is accurate, which also encapsulates my disgust at the modern Republican party. Over the last two decades, I have watched the Republicans steadily deteriorate into a party that doesn't seem to care who gets elected, as long as they're under the Republican ticket. In other words, uniting around someone you know to be seriously flawed is, in my view, an inherently bad thing.

A very good argument can be made that the Democrats feel the same way.

The Democrats just don't bring much more to the table than 'America is fuctup unless we're in the White House'-style rhetoric. 

Ray Brady:

QUOTE: Doesn't neither. I have the right to complain about whatever I want, whenever I want. Just try to stop me.

Hello, 'Ignore' button...

In other words, uniting around someone you know to be seriously flawed is,
in my view, an inherently bad thing.

***

Agreed.  I grimaced, and voted for Gore.  I held my nose, and voted for Kerry.  This "vote for whatever loser we chuck your way just because you kind-sorta agree with his politics" is getting old.  The Democrats should have been able to sleep-walk to the White House this year, and yet they chose a candidate who brings nothing to the table except bland, empty rhetoric about "change" -- and even that he's backing away from.

My choice this year is coming down to a candidate that I kind of like, but whose politics I disgree with and a candidate who I vaguely agree with but I think will be a lousy President.  Some choice.  I'll be looking very closely at the 3rd party candidates in the coming months.

Hey, I still think we should go back to the old style, where the loser
becomes Veep.

That would mean we had 2 VPs and no President then.  I think they both qualify as losers.  :P

Well, if it's Biden, that frees up McCain to pick Romney.  The suck would be about equal.  The only way he could do worse is Leiberman. 

IMO, Lieberman would make it a slam dunk for McCain.  All they would have to do change the direction of the campaign to something like "Vote for Real Change" and then promote the ticket as non-partisan.  They'd just play up Lieberman's Democratic contacts/pull and McCain's Republican contacts/pull saying they could get things done in a non-partisan way.

It would completely deflate Obama's entire message of change (especially after picking Biden).  The really conservative Republicans have already been alienated so it's not going to hurt in that regard.  He can't lose what he didn't have in the first place. 

What it would do is pull moderate Democrats and moderate undecided voters over to McCain/Lieberman in big numbers.  At least that's how I see it.

The really conservative Republicans have already been alienated so it's not going to hurt in that regard.  He can't lose what he didn't have in the first place. 

Plus, a lot of Republicans really like Lieberman.

NIce job by Obama saying a tornado killed 10,000 people in Kansas. Introducing Biden as the next President of the United States was pretty good too.

Oops. The tornado thing was from last year. I must've missed it. Still a good one.