In a lot of ways the “gotta be a member” rules make sense when you think about this being the party choosing their candidate, not “us” choosing a candidate. On the other hand, I think these rules really just discourage people most of the time and are certainly confusing.

The President of the Austin NAACP backs Paul on this one – even though he doesn’t necessarily agree with Paul’s political views:
http://www.nolanchart.com/article1134.html

The Geneva convention states that even in times of war, all parties need to allow adequate water and food to the civilian population. Yet our sanctions against Iraq were an obvious violation of this. Folks see sanctions (a.k.a. Obama’s aggressive diplomacy) as a good alternative to war. But sanction of this kind are an act of war – in fact they are a violation of acceptable warfare.

I’m afraid I’m far too much of a humanist to back any candidate that can’t speak out with truth and honesty in this regard. I’d really like to be hopeful and optimistic about Obama vs. ‘the others’, but having read many of his speeches to industry groups, as well as his Foreign Affairs magazine article, I can only conclude that no ‘real’ change would occur.

I refuse to fall for the trap of voting for the least evil candidate. It just perpetuates the illusion that we have real choices in our politics. Short term compromises get us no where in the long run. False dichotomies between candidates that are all part of an exceedingly narrow spectrum won’t fool me.

And Paul, that’s a terrific and well-written analysis. I have to admit that my enthusiasm for Obama involves a lot of wishful projection. I think it does for most of his advocates. I also admit I know little about Evan Bayh, although I recall his dad quite well (as you might expect, since I’m 60).

One woman I know well, a political independent whose intelligence and intiuition are especially trustworthy, thinks what matters most at this point is who McCain chooses for a vice president, because McCain and his #2 are likely to be our next two presidents.

She sees stuff to like about both Hillary and Barack, but believes that most voters aren’t ready to pull the lever for a woman or a black man. And she thinks McCain is too old and possibly too unhealthy either to last a full term or to serve two terms. But that he’ll be elected because he’ll be the most comfortable choice.

In any case, we’ll see.

Son of Birch Bayh, the Vietnam-era anti-war senator, he was elected governor twice of Indiana before he ran for the US Senate, and he won handily every time. A week before he was elected to the Governor’s seat the first time, they were interviewing Mutz?, his opponent, on the radio. It was a foregone conclusion that Bayh was going to win, and Mutz didn’t seem too upset about it.

You know, he said, Evan Bayh is the sort of young man that we really ought to encourage to go into politics. He’s eloquent, honest, intelligent, got a feel for the working man. The only reason, he said, to vote against him was that he was too young and inexperienced to be governor. In another 10 years, he’ll be perfect.

Evan Bayh won election in Indiana, a state that had only a couple of years before had a sweep of Republican wins. There wasn’t a Democrat to be seen in the state House, the state Senate, or any other statewide office. You’d have to be good to win as a Democrat in Indiana – but Bayh was running largely on the reputation of his father, who appeared to be honest, industrious, intelligent, and hard-working. Undoubtedly, many of the voters were thinking, “Yeah, he’s young, but he has his father to call on, in case he runs into something.”

I don’t think Barack will make a very good president. I’m an independent that leans far to the right, but it’s not ideology that scares me about Barack; it’s just there’s just too much of the Chief Operating Officer in that job description. And Barack doesn’t have a papa to phone in the middle of the night in case he needs to seek advice informally.

But Huck’s religiosity scares me a bit, McCain sees us in Iraq for a century, and Romney’s an Amway salesman, slimy and untrustworthy. Paul’s a racist, and Clinton voted to send our kids into Iran.

In the end, people rarely vote for candidates; they vote against their opponents. I suspect it’ll be a close election this fall, and Barack will beating Mac. That’s the best I could hope for, but hardly what I want; I’d kinda like Evan Bayh, with Dennis Kucinich as his veep. But they have no chance of winning.

Hoosiers remember Birch Bayh, so Evan could win Republican votes in Indiana, but he’s not the most electrifying campaigner. If it came down to listening to Bayh speak, and watching paint dry, even Hoosiers would choose the paint….

http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_decline.htm

At the time Willy Brown, then the Mayor of San Francisco and one of the savviest pols in California history, said the race was between “the incompetent and the insufferable”. The incompetent won. We would have suffered less under the insufferable guy. At the very least it’s clear that our response to 9/11, had it still occurred, would not have included going to war in Iraq.

I could go on, but… you know what I mean, I’m sure.