The US election

[Dr. Doom]

Doom doesn't really care that bush got re-elected... he's just glad it wasn't Nader.

[Senior]

Originally Posted by galaxie

Took the words right out of my mouth.
It's not hard to pay people off when your daddy's a rich businessman.

Maybe so but you'd think that he might have wanted better than a low C average if he was bribing people. Also if you look at his first campaign for Governer of Texas he lost to Democrat Kent Hance. The reason was the Kent Hance was able to play himself off as a simple man from Texas. Good old Kent he went to church on Sunday, was a Texas A&M graduate and spoke his mind on issues that mattered. George W Bush on the other hand wasn't even really a Texan. He was Ivy League educated and refered to statistics from various studies most people have never even heard of. He could never give a simple answer to am honest question and just wasn't to be trusted.

The moral of the storey is that George learned very early in his political carreer that keeping it simple worked, really well. To this day it's the bread and butter of politicians. Clintons campaign was based on 2 thyings: we need healthcare for all Americans and well duh it's all about the economy. So if you asked him what he thought about something he'd give a simple answer and then go on about "but what Americans really need is access to healthcare and a strong ecconomy to pay for it."

My theory? It's all Shrum's fault.

[miss.myra]

Originally Posted by galaxie

^ haha.

You know, Nader makes me angry, too.
I can only imagnine that had Nader not run, his supporters would have voted for Kerry, which could have made a difference.

I totally don't get why people vote for Nader in the first place. Especially when the election was predicted to be so close.

Do they expect the guy to turn into a fucking unicorn or something?

[Gusto]

Originally Posted by miss.myra

Do they expect the guy to turn into a fucking unicorn or something?

that would have made my week

[galaxie]

Originally Posted by miss.myra

I totally don't get why people vote for Nader in the first place. Especially when the election was predicted to be so close.

Do they expect the guy to turn into a fucking unicorn or something?

HAHA
Again I have given out too much karma.

I can understand why people would LIKE to vote for Nader - he's a good guy and he's done a lot of good things, but the support just wasn't there. Voting for Nader one might as well have 1. Not voted 2. Spoiled their ballot. Ridiculous. I'm still debating which Americans are stupider - the ones who voted for Bush, or the ones who wasted their votes on Nader.

[jmzD]

Originally Posted by miss.myra

I totally don't get why people vote for Nader in the first place. Especially when the election was predicted to be so close.

Nader had no effect on the electoral college, the gaps in all of the states were far too wide for his occasional 1% to even matter. The popular vote was with Bush this time, by about 3 million ballots. I voted for Kerry, but in Nader's defense, he's actually got his shit together when it comes to the issues. However, his downfall is in the fact that simliar to your party in Vancouver, his is the Green party and his ideas are far too realistic for the generally uptight population of the United States to fall in with...

[-ff-]

Originally Posted by miss.myra

I totally don't get why people vote for Nader in the first place. Especially when the election was predicted to be so close.

Do they expect the guy to turn into a fucking unicorn or something?

no, its a mistake to think that the people who voted for nader are votes that 'belong' to kerry and that nader supporters should just 'smarten up'. These are people who generally wouldnt vote for kerry anyway, they dislike the democrats as much as the republicans. Voting for Nader is kind of a symbolic action, like spoiling your ballot - saying 'i disagree with the whole system, with the shitty choices I'm being offered' not just with Bush. Thats a valid opinion.

Its like people who vote Green here - I get really frustrated with NDP supporters who get upset that the Greens are 'stealing' their votes. Parties and candidates are not 'entitled' to anyone's vote. Those votes belong to only one person, the person casting them. People who vote for the Greens are doing it intentionally, precisely because they dont want to vote for the NDP.

[wum]

Originally Posted by miss.myra

I totally don't get why people vote for Nader in the first place. Especially when the election was predicted to be so close.

Do they expect the guy to turn into a fucking unicorn or something?

They're trying to change the system by supporting a third party. A two party system blows

[ebbomega]

"What's the point of democracy if everybody votes wrong?"
- Dick Solomon.

[Grapes]

it's ok guys, 4 years will go by in a flash.

Think so? Let me give you a bit of perspective here. Remember September 11th?.. seems kinda like a long time ago, doesn't it.

That happened a whole goddamn YEAR into Dubya's first term.

I don't know... to me it feels like the fucker's been running things for a decade.

[Grapes]

Gusto, I just read that link you posted to the Guardian where Americans reacted to the newspaper's campaign to get Bush out of office.

There are some seriously sick, sick people in the United States right now. Hatred and confusion courses through them like a cancer, and you can see it manifested between the lines of their text. Scary, bizzare stuff, but thank you for posting it.