Personally... I Think Cenk Is Correct...

[calimary]

92. I know, and it drives me nuts!

I know the bad guys are in disarray at the moment but that won't last, and they'll settle on someone (probably romney) and link arms in solidarity. MAYBE they'll do it half-heartedly, especially if they still harbor some really hard feelings that THEIR choice had been better. I'm also hoping some real dingdong like ron paul or rick santorum will insist on shoving his ideology ahead of all logic and reason and intelligent, impartial, NON-agenda-driven long-range thinking, and will go rogue into a third party run. Wouldn't that be delicious? Then Obama could almost sleepwalk back into the White House.

I KNOW about the "herding cats" jokes. I KNOW about the Will Rogers witticism about the traditional and seeminly inbred disorganization of the Democrats.

"I am not a member of an organized political party. I am a Democrat." - Will Rogers (1879 – 1935), American cowboy, vaudeville performer, humorist, social commentator and motion picture actor. He was one of the world's best-known celebrities in the 1920s and 1930s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Rogers

But dammit, it's time to put our Machiavelli hats on our heads and glue our eyes on the prize and remember this is about keeping the bad guys OUT of the White House. We need to keep it. The only way to do so is to support Barack Obama. Even if you have to hold your nose.

There. Is. No. One. With. A. Better. Shot.

I say this with all my heart and sincerity, and the greatest respect: those who decide it's more important to "send a message" by defecting to vote for some Green Party candidate or Independent candidate or even NO candidate will guarantee that the republi-CON gets in. You'll be sending a message alright - that you're purposefully handing victory over to the bad guys. The ones on the other side. I went to an anti-Iraq War rally in 2003 and met an earnest young woman who was working for the Green Party candidate for California governor. Democrat Gray Davis was governor and fucking darrell issa had helped bankroll a recall election against him, with eyes on becoming Davis's republi-CON opponent. That was the one in which Ahnold stepped in, announcing his plans to run for governor on Jay Leno's show, and eventually snatched the GOP nomination from issa, who held that embarrassing news conference in which he broke into blithering, boner-esque sobs.

Anyway, that young Green Party activist was there at the rally, handing out literature about her party's candidate for governor, Peter Camejo. Camejo didn't have a prayer, but he might well siphon off just enough votes to allow "the Terminator" to pull ahead. That, or render the outcome close enough for the republi-CONS to steal. I talked with her briefly, asking her if she wasn't risking the election for us by chipping off enough slivers of support to hobble the only candidate who's even partially favorable to our way of thinking who had a realistic chance of winning, and wind up handing the REAL enemy the election instead. And she replied "...but we Have to Send a Message!"

Good God.

Is it worth sending that message that will do nothing else but allow the OTHER guy to win? Seriously? 'Cause I guarantee you: that other guy won't give a rat's ass damn about what he regards as your stupid, irrelevant, unrealistic, and ridiculously foolish frickin' message.

Oh yeah, and one more thing. Camejo did stay in the race, and when every vote really mattered, guess who got recalled? Gray Davis. Leaving us with arnold schwarzenegger. That was fun. I kept imagining seeing that young Camejo supporter and asking her - "well, how's all that 'send a message' stuff workin' out for you? Happy now?"