The lesser of two evils

[Alferd_Packer]

Let's be realistic. No presidential candidate is ever perfect. They are all human. They all have positive and negative qualities about them.

It has been my experience in voting for president, that my choice of who to vote for is generally dictated by who I am voting against.

Politicians know this. That is why negative and attack ads are so successful.

I'd like to start this thread by listing what I think are the three most notable negative and non-presidential qualities of both candidates.

McCain:

Age
Temper / anger
Apparent lack of personal integrity due to inconsistent positions

Obama:

Lack of any long term political background
Flip Flop on the FISA bill
Reactive, rather than proactive stance in regards to Republican attacks

And the most trivial negatives against the two?

McCain:
- he looks like Colonel Tigh, the Cylon. (http://img127.imageshack.us/img127/4240/mccaincylongv3.png)

Obama
- his ears are different sizes

[Dr Adequate]

Let's be realistic. No presidential candidate is ever perfect. They are all human. They all have positive and negative qualities about them.


http://z.about.com/d/politicalhumor/1/0/j/z/1/obama_superman_awesome.jpg

[joobz]

I don't buy into the theory.
Certainly some elections are the lesser of two evils, but I do not think we have that this time.

I"m optimistic for the first time of all the elections I've seen. I'm optimistic that either candidate will do a superior job compared to the last 8 years. This is a good time for americans.

[ProbeX]

Alferd, I agree with the pos.s and neg.s you listed for both candidates. It does seem that McCain is benefiting some from the negative attack ads, but if he keeps up the pace, he's going to damage his ratings as did Clinton IMO.

[SezMe]

For McCain age, per se, is not the problem so much as the lapses and memory and judgment that are of concern. Whether that is attributable to age is another matter.

[Peephole]

For McCain age, per se, is not the problem so much as the lapses and memory and judgment that are of concern. Whether that is attributable to age is another matter.
The only thing you can really attribute to his age is his complete inability to use computers and the Internet. We can give him the benefit of the doubt on the other stuff.
McCain:
- he looks like Colonel Tigh, the Cylon. (http://img127.imageshack.us/img127/4240/mccaincylongv3.png)
That's a negative?

[Drudgewire]

McCain:
Apparent lack of personal integrity due to inconsistent positions



Any long-time UFC fan is going to have a tough time getting past this. The whole time he was getting this "bloodsport" banned nationwide he would neglect to mention he was a former Nevada Athletic Commissioner and his buddies on it were watching all their PPV boxing revenue dry up from the competition.

Although in fairness to him, his diligence wound up resulting in the rules changes which turned MMA into the mainstream sport it is today.

In other words, I have no opinion. :p

[dudalb]

I will probably vote for Obama because he is the lesser of the two evils.
But I admit that the cult of personality mentality of some of his supporters are making me reconsider this. The chanting, the anger if any criticism is made of Obama,all this is starting to really turn me off.

[Brainster]

I'd like to start this thread by listing what I think are the three most notable negative and non-presidential qualities of both candidates.

McCain:

Age
Temper / anger
Apparent lack of personal integrity due to inconsistent positions

Obama:

Lack of any long term political background
Flip Flop on the FISA bill
Reactive, rather than proactive stance in regards to Republican attacks

LOL! His "reactive rather than proactive stance in regards to Republican attacks may be a weakness as a candidate, but it's not a weakness as regards being a president. And no conservative who votes against Obama will cite his vote on FISA as a reason for not supporting him.

Barack's real negative qualities:

Relative unknown
Undefined political philosophy
Various unsavory associations

[corplinx]

Various unsavory associations

I have it on good authority that nearly everyone in the GOP for the past 8 years had an unsavory connection to a guy named Tom Delay.

[Dr Adequate]

Various unsavory associations

http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/mccain%20bush%20hug%20twn.jpg

[Cleon]

I will probably vote for Obama because he is the lesser of the two evils.
But I admit that the cult of personality mentality of some of his supporters are making me reconsider this. The chanting, the anger if any criticism is made of Obama,all this is starting to really turn me off.

This "cult of personality" crap is really stupid, and frankly I'm sick of hearing it.

People, for once in a very long time, are actually supporting a candidate, rather than just voting against the other guy (see: Gore, Kerry), and as a result people like you call them "Obamamaniacs" and go on about Obama being some sort of "messiah."

Should they actually defend their candidate of choice, and point out that many of the attacks levied at him are unbelievably stupid, the response is completely predictable: "Waaaaah, you just won't criticize your Messiah. Waaaaaah, the cult of personality is turning me off."

I'm not planning on voting for Obama, neither as a "lesser evil" nor as a supporter. But I still recognize this "cult of personality" whining for what it is--nothing more than sour grapes because some people actually support Obama, and aren't just voting for him because they see him as the "lesser evil."

I'm sorry you don't see anything to support in either candidate. I'm not thrilled either--I will, more than likely, vote third party (and that brings out the Democrats' whining). But I'm not going to dismiss other's support of a candidate as a "cult of personality" just because I don't agree with them.

[Cleon]

And after that little vent, I do feel better. :D

[Alferd_Packer]

That's a negative?

Never trust a Cylon

[Suddenly]

I'm pretty much an Obamamaniac. Only once before have I voted for president for someone I felt confident was the best man for the job rather than the least crappy, and that was Bob Dole, and Obama strikes me to this point as outstanding.

Even so... if I were looking for the lesser of two evils the one thing that would turn me 100% against McCain would be John Roberts. When he was nominated to be chief justice, I was the leader of the weird brigade of liberals defending the choice. Looking past his political views, he had a resume that was second to none and a reputation for putting law ahead of poltics.

Right. Unfortunately, he was more or less a mole, and I the only thing that makes me feel dumber than supporting Roberts is that I actually believed people like Bush and McCain when they said the Iraqi people would greet our troops as liberators and everything would be cream cheese.

In the end, we are one more hard core Scalia wannabee from some serious disaster when it comes to constitutional law, and I not only do not trust McCain as to that, Roberts has given me cause to doubt any conservative nominee...

[Tsukasa Buddha]

McCain:

Age
Temper / anger
Apparent lack of personal integrity due to inconsistent positions


Stupid
Dumb
Politician


Obama:

Lack of any long term political background
Flip Flop on the FISA bill
Reactive, rather than proactive stance in regards to Republican attacks


Maybe
Only hard lefties care about that, and it wasn't a complete flip.
************


And the most trivial negatives against the two?

McCain:
- he looks like Colonel Tigh, the Cylon. (http://img127.imageshack.us/img127/4240/mccaincylongv3.png)

Obama
- his ears are different sizes

Those are positives.






Honestly, this type of junk makes me wish our politics were more party focused than candidate.

There are no objective "negatives" that will be viewed that way by everyone. I may view McCain's stance on gay rights as the biggest negative, but others may view that as his biggest positive.

Honestly, I think people are putting a little too much of an expectation on the power of the President. The office is most effective at screwing things up.

[Ryan O'Dine]

McCain’s biggest problem is that he’s a Republican. After eight painful years of Republican incompetence up and down the Executive branch (ETA: and the many Republican scandals in Congress, let's not forget), he’s got a high hurdle to overcome. By the looks of his ads (as well as about every sound bite I’ve heard from him in the last month) he’s given up trying to leap the hurdle, and is opting to drag the other guy down to his level instead.

I will probably vote for Obama because he is the lesser of the two evils.
But I admit that the cult of personality mentality of some of his supporters are making me reconsider this. The chanting, the anger if any criticism is made of Obama,all this is starting to really turn me off.

I find this interesting. The idea that the behavior of a candidate's followers might play a large role in voting decisions is something that makes me uneasy. If you agree with the politics, why should his followers matter? Is it that you don't want to be seen as "one of them"? I hope that's not the reason.

I suppose one can worry about who he'll surround himself with. Otherwise, I have a hard time understanding it.

[Peephole]

Relative unknown
This is a ridiculous allegation that seems to flow forth solely from the fact that he's black and had foreign fathers.
Undefined political philosophy
I believe you're talking about the other candidate.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0708/12215.html
Various unsavory associations
Shocking, there's a few bad apples among the hundreds of people that Obama shakes hands with daily.

[Brainster]

This is a ridiculous allegation that seems to flow forth solely from the fact that he's black and had foreign fathers.

No, it stems from the fact that he was an unknown state senator four years ago.

Shocking, there's a few bad apples among the hundreds of people that Obama shakes hands with daily.

His pastor. The guy who helped him buy his house. The person whose house he launched his first campaign at. A childhood mentor. These are not people in the faceless throng.

[Peephole]

No, it stems from the fact that he was an unknown state senator four years ago.
And now he is known throughout the world. So that's a critique that was only valid up until this year?
His pastor. The guy who helped him buy his house. The person whose house he launched his first campaign at. A childhood mentor. These are not people in the faceless throng.
How dare Barack Obama buy houses, run for offices and go to churches, this man is surely unfit for the presidency.

[moon1969]

You forgot to mention that John McCain thinks he can win in Iraq and Afghanistan. If McCain gets elected USA will lose in Afghanistan like the Soviet Union did in the Soviet Afghan war.