STEWART COPELAND

It's an unprecedented year in the history of campaigns. With a lot of states trying to become more important in candidate selection the parties have pushed up their primaries, so now Iowa and New Hampshire (VERY WHITE STATES by the way) are becoming less relevant and it's more of a national contest. This also has made the money surge even more important early on. I remember at this time 4 years ago I had just heard about Howard Dean and even though he was polling at about 2 percent he became the front runner in November. Now they're having 'debates' in April the YEAR BEFORE the election. For more info see the New Yorker article I believe in the April 30 2007 edition that discusses all of this more intelligently. Now answer my poll question! Since we here are all 'special' I doubt that our choice will be nationally representative. Non U.S. citizens are encouraged to participate also :)

That's an ineresting thread.
I would simply suggest everybody to respect each opinion, thanks.

Giovanni & staff

I don't care about anyone of them enough to go out and vote. I actually wanted to vote last time. Partially just because I couldn't, but mostly just because I pretty much wanted anyone but Bush... no danger of getting him again.

It would be interesting to see an African American Muslim in the Whitehouse, or a Woman. Both are overdue.

anything positive will be good. (IMO)

At least there is a possibility to vote for the opposite of what they have now in the U.S.

It's all in the voters hands now...

Cheers.

Good thread Grant.

No comment, because I have very strong opinions on this stuff and I'm trying to play nice...

al gore!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As I'm from the UK I don't get the chance to vote in your elections......

Over here most of our parties say exactly the same thing, just different ways round (and with an added extra to make them different)

Is that the same with yours?

And sometimes in past elections I've had to pick the best of a bad bunch!!!


I'm sure we should have compulsory voting but with the option of ticking a 'none of the above' box!!

Kim

And sometimes in past elections I've had to pick the best of a bad bunch!!!


I'm sure we should have compulsory voting but with the option of ticking a 'none of the above' box!!

Kim
:D[/quote]

That is why I love that we can write-in votes as that's usually what I wind up doing most of the time. I've used Superman, Batman, Mickey Mouse, Howard Stern, that lady from the Doonesbury comic strip that people always write whose name is escaping me, Pat Paulson and others that are escaping me.

The only closest thing I could witness about politcs in US is about a cd I distributed here in Italy, that made me learn a little bit more about US election.
I run FAT WRECK RECORDS in Italy, among the other 20 labels I run, and a few years ago Fat Mike, the leader of NOFX and owner of the label, released a compilation called ROCK AGAINST BUSH; the main thing behind it was that he was just pushing people to GO AND VOTE, as it seemed that most of the young against Bush didn't go to vote.
He was just focusing on this problem.
Of course everybody know that the average punk-rock rooster of bands are against Bush, but the issue was not a mere anti-Bush thing, but an anti-people-not-going-to-vote.
That was an interesting point of view and a clever act in my opinion.

It's a sad state of affairs that most of us end up having to vote negatively (ie, just to get out whoever is in power and screwing things up) but all of us who have the right to vote really should use it. It's a rare and valuable thing to many in the world. People all over the world have had to fight and sometimes die for the right to vote. Women died in Britain for the right to vote and people in Zimbabwe still do today. We're lucky buggers really.

As of right now, Rudy. Long way to go, though.

Since 3 days, we have a new "president de la république" in France, home of the human rights. It's Nicolas Sarkozy. He wants better relationships with the US. So I hope your president will be interested in Europe. And of course bring your soldiers back from Iraq. Good luck.


Ho, and let me tell you something that might surprise you. We had twelve (12) candidates to the presidency. Among them a post-office employee. And we are very proud of the exceptional participation rate to the election (close to 85 %).

More people voted for "American Idol" than voted in our last Presidential election. It's a real embarrassment, frankly.

(Problem is, none of the smaller countries are going to push Bush into leaving Iraq...because we are kind of the big kids on the block. It's a shame how few Americans realize how much power this country has, globally speaking...)

[quote="Divemistress of the Dark"]More people voted for "American Idol" than voted in our last Presidential election. It's a real embarrassment, frankly.

(Problem is, none of the smaller countries are going to push Bush into leaving Iraq...because we are kind of the big kids on the block. It's a shame how few Americans realize how much power this country has, globally speaking...)[/quote]

Can't you vote more than once in american idiot...er idol?
I don't think it's as bad as you think. Now, voting irregularities: that's a big story.