My vote in the primary must be a vote AGAINST Kerry.

[Walt Starr]

I have a single goal and a single issue now in the primary. That goal is seeing John Kerry lose the nomination. Nothing else matters to me in the primaries.

In order to accomplish this, I must vote for the single candidate who stands the best chance of defeating Kerry. There is only one choice for me and that is John Edwards. Joihn Edwards is the anti-Kerry

It's interesting that the primaries have become microcosmic of how I must vote in the General Election. I have a single issue in the General Election, that being the defeat of George W. Bush. Nothing else matters, so I am forced to vote for the single candidate who stands the best chance of defeating Bush. That candidate will be whoever is the Democratic Nominee because only that person will be the anti-Bush.

I am planning on taking vacation days for November second and third this year. I'll need both days to wash the muck, mud, and just plain dirt of the primary and general election seasons off my soul.

[eileen_d]

1. Your primary vote is no more and no less important

than any other person's primary vote. Same with your GE vote.

WWWSD?

[Walt Starr]

2. WWWSD?

Vote AGAINST Kerry on March 16th and then vote AGAINST Bush on November 2nd.

And take a long hot shower after each vote.

[demnan]

3. You sound bitter, and I'm bitter right along with you

but I'm routing for Kucinich because he's the last candidate in who didn't support the Iraq war and that is my biggest issue.

Edwards voted right along with Kerry on that issue, I don't see him as that different. And I know Kucinich workers made some back door deals with Edwards but that was their decision, not mine.

Like you I will be voting against Bush more than for the nominee in the general election.

[lancdem]

4. As long as you vote for the Dem in November

That's all I care about. We agree on that 100 percent. :)

[gWbush is Mabus]

5. Why do you prefer Edwards over Kerry?????????

I think they both suck.

[Walt Starr]

6. Both do suck, IMO.

But Kerry sucks more than Edwards, IMO.

Sorta like how Bush sucks more than any Democrat anybody would care to name.

[Deaner1971]

7. Ahh, a positive message.

Love the way that people are content to portray their own party's candidates as horrible but, not as horrible as Bush. That attitude will really resonate with swing voters.

There are still two non-Kerry and non-Edwards candidates. Why don't you be pro-Kucinich or pro-Sharpton rather than bashing men who could be representing the party in Novemeber? Be for something.

[Walt Starr]

11. Ahhh, another opportunity to present the GE analogy

Voting for Kucinich or Sharpton in the primary would be as effective as voting for Nader in the General election.

I don't want Kerry to be the nominee, ergo, I must vote for the single candidate who stands the best chance of defeating Kerry. Edwards is that candidate.

[Guaranteed]

19. Be FOR something? We don't do that here in the Dem party

anymore. We're only against Bush. That's all.

One of us. One of us.

On edit: And that's not to say that we're against Bush's policies. Just him. Just his hair, in fact.

We hate George W. Bush's hair!

[JVS]

20. Isn't that the true spirit of ABB?

[Walt Starr]

22. Ayup

When faced with a choice that amounts to the evil of two lessers, one must take the Democratic lesser over the Republican lesser.

In this primary, I have put the same logic to work. I am faced with the evil of two lessers. I'll take what's behind door number 2, thankyouverymuch.

:evilgrin:

[Goldmund]

8. What do you gain by...

voting for Edwards if you want so badly to vote against Kerry? The only substantially different issue (that I can think of) between the two of them is NAFTA.

[Walt Starr]

12. Only Edwards stands any chance of defeating Kerry

just like only the Democratic nominee will stand any chance of defeating Bush.

Politics for me has become all about voting against somebody.

[Goldmund]

13. Me too,

but again -- why do you think Edwards has a better chance of defeating bush? They're so close on the issues, and Edwards' advantage on NAFTA is more that made up for by Kerry's war medals.

[Walt Starr]

14. Economic issues trump everything else

Kery could have the CMH and NAFTA would still trump him.

[Goldmund]

15. I don't think I agree.

It's not like * can run on a great economy. He'll try running as the "war president" -- "nineilevent, terra, nineileven, saddamn, eevul" -- and Kerry makes it harder for him to do that. What's he going to run on? Giving jobs to Asian kids in sweatshops?

[JVS]

21. Which one is pro-gun? That will be decisive

[Adelante]

17. Death Penalty

Edwards favors; Kerry against, except for terrorists.

Re NAFTA...

Just reading this:

Kerry had voted in favor of the North American Free Trade Agreement, for elevating China's trading status and for giving presidents more authority in negotiating such agreements - all black marks on the Teamsters' scorecard.

Why would the 1.4 million-member Teamsters support him?

"That's a legitimate question," Hoffa said. "And the answer is, he is evolving on this issue. I think he's sensitive to this issue. He has had women and men crying in his arms, saying, 'I lost my job to Mexico.' There's no way you can campaign without being affected by that."

Hoffa said Kerry has promised to include strong labor protections in future agreements and to create a commission that would review new trade deals.

The Teamsters, which flirted with President Bush in the early days of his administration, can waiver on the trade issue for a candidate with what Hoffa called "a total package" who can win in November.

Source: WaPo 2/19/04

[edzontar]

9. If it comes down to that, I am with you...but both are less than

Exciting, interesing, or inspiring.

[mmonk]

10. That's too bad

I want to see at least some examination over the new foreign policy ideology that is changing America in more sweeping ways than just the Iraq war. I think with Kerry, we stand a better chance of at least taking a look at it. This ideology will make it harder to renegotiate trade such as Edwards is pushing. Less countries will be interested in modifying trade deals that benefit them if they just plain despise us by the way we behave internationally.

[Crunchy Frog]

16. Well, at any rate, I'm glad to see

that your vote is now transferrable. It's a step in the right direction.:thumbsup:

[Anwen]

18. I will also vote against Kerry.

I'm still voting for Dean in my primary.


From Dean's message yesterday:

"...keep active in the primary. We are still on the ballots. Sending delegates to the convention only continues to energize our party. Fight on in the caucuses. Use your network to send progressive delegates to the convention in Boston. We are not going away. We are staying together, unified -- all of us."


Dean is the only candidate who has earned my respect, and he will have also earned my vote on March 9.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

23. A close look at your reasoning for why you must vote against Kerry

reveals no real reasoning.

[DrFunkenstein]

24. Do You Have, You Know, A Reason or Something?

This seems a little juvenile to me.

[Walt Starr]

25. Why, it's the same reason I'm going to use in the General Election

You know the one how one person is suckier than any Democrat could ever be? That one.

Of the candidates left, Kerry sucks the most and I must threfore vote for the one candidate who stands the best chance of beating him. That candidate is John Edwards.

I am now ABK in the primary for precisely the same reason I'll be ABB in the GE.