American Election '08 - Some observations and questions

[Afrobean]

You can't dig too deep into the mainstream candidates. That's why people don't do it. You try it and all you're going to find is that BOTH candidates would be ****ty presidents. But at the same, you've got to realize that your vote is worthless if you don't put it on someone who might have a chance at winning the election, and the Democrat and the Republican are the only ones who do. So basically, you've got to pick the lesser of two evils or you're not going to have any effect at all. It's because of the way the electoral college works more than anything else.

And as far as people choosing based on one issue: that's what's called a deal breaker. Obama's policies aren't too bad, but his stance on taxes and spending are a major issue for me (that is, he's "lowering" taxes, but in reality he's increasing taxes and shifting the burden to the rich). Not to say that I'm all that fond of McCain's stance either (namely: EVERYONE should get tax cuts, but at least his stance on spending is better than Obama's), but it is preferable, and if I were forced to pick one of the two, it'd be for that. The only other qualm I've got on Obama is his claim that he'll do a full withdrawal from Iraq, but I'm not concerned about that, because I know he can't do it. He's just saying that to get votes; he can't exactly be up there saying "Iraq war is a failure and that's Bush's fault blah blah MORE OF THE SAME" then immediately turn around and admit that it would be a terrible idea to just pull out without cleaning up the mess we'd made.

if it's just because of the people I tend to associate with

That's what it is, I'm sure. The youth is already left leaning naturally, especially in this election year. I seriously doubt that you spend more time with people 30~40+ than you do people from ~18~25.