Every time I say “McCain sucks because _______________,” I shouldn’t have to follow it up with “But don’t worry, I’m not voting for Obama, either!”

And every time I say “Obama sucks because _______________,” I shouldn’t have to follow it up with “But don’t worry, I’m not voting for McCain, either!”

There ain’t no Fairness Doctrine here at PGB. Commentary will not always come in equal portions. So, rest assured, you can safely assume criticism of one party does not mean endorsement of the other.

Carry on.

Since I don’t really feel like I have a dog in the ‘08 fight, I’m honestly trying to stay away from both pro-candidate-X propaganda and anti-candidate-Y attack stuff.

That said, every once in a while I come across something that either bugs or inspires me enough to Go There - especially when it’s straight from the horse’s mouth. Thus, what the hell, Barack:

Kudos to the reporter for “…This SWEETIE…” in the follow-up.

Here’s a thought: Can we get a candidate who doesn’t say disrespectful things to women? Bueller? Bueller? Anybody?

I’ve said this in passing before (and once actually wrote in “No Confidence” on a ballot) but was prompted to really contemplate it a few minutes ago by a LiveJournal comment by Victoria (aka Evilegg):

There should be a “None of the Above” option on the ballot.

As Egg pointed out, if you withhold your vote in protest, you’re just counted among the apathetic masses. There’s no way to distinguish between the ignorant or lazy, and those who are informed about their options and don’t like the look of any of them.

Presently, our options as voters appear to be the following:

A) What usually amounts to a lesser-of-two-evils vote for a major-party candidate,
B) A “protest” vote for a third-party candidate you probably don’t fully agree with, either,
C) A write-in vote that, unless part of a major movement, won’t even be reported by name, OR
D) Abstention from voting and being counted in the unspecific “didn’t turn out” statistics.

I used to regurgitate the “if you don’t vote, don’t bitch” adage. But after becoming increasingly disillusioned with the options before me, and talking to a whole bunch of other folks who are sick of voting for “lesser evil,” I realized a principled, educated non-vote can actually be a vote in and of itself.

Sometimes, your options are so unpalatable that you just can’t lend your name to any of them. Why not have an option that sends a message - x-number of voters turned out to say they disapprove of what this election had to offer them. We don’t have to vote for lesser evil, we don’t have to fragment our vote amongst third-party or write-in protests, and we don’t have to be lumped into the same category as the people who can’t peel themselves away from reality TV long enough to even find out when election day is.

SOURCE

Earlier, Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton blasted the choice and highlighted Palin’s lack of foreign policy experience.

“Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency,” Burton said in a statement.

1. Obama’s campaign already pissed off a bunch of small-town folks with the “clinging to guns or religion” comments. How’s about we stop insulting small-town America, BHO?

2. The punchline here should be pretty obvious. Sarah Palin is only a heartbeat way from the presidency if John McCain is President.

Doesn’t this throw a monkey wrench in things.

A presidential candidate I can’t stand just picked, as his running mate, MY FAVORITE GOVERNOR.

Sarah Palin. She’s originally from Idaho, and a University of Idaho alumna. Yanking some Wikipedia quotes:

The two eloped shortly after Palin graduated college; when they learned they needed witnesses for the civil ceremony, they recruited two residents from the old-age home down the street.

Hey, that’s like what WE did for OUR civil ceremony! Except our witnesses were the slightly inebriated college-kid downstairs neighbors of our internet-ordained friend.

Details of Palin’s personal life have contributed to her political image. She hunts, eats moose hamburger, ice fishes, rides snowmobiles, and owns a float plane. Palin holds a lifetime membership with the National Rifle Association. She admits that she used marijuana when it was legal in Alaska, but says that she did not like it.

Of course, that’s all on top of the fact that she’s totally pro-state-independence and has been doing her damnedest to get Alaska off the federal teat. She has a reputation as a reformer and corruption-buster. I am really not afraid of Sarah Palin coming for my guns, though I’d love to go hunting with her.

She’s also smokin’ hot, in case you didn’t notice that yet:

So anyway, Sarah Palin rocks. This is great. Except for the part where I don’t like John McCain and am now supremely torn over what to do.

I was interviewed by the Spokesman-Review about an hour ago (they found me because I’m still listed as College Republicans president at the University of Idaho), and here’s the gist of what I told them: This is the first time I have ever felt like the choice of a running mate may well change my outlook on a campaign. I have a lot of issues with John McCain. I maintained up until oh, yesterday, that nothing he could do would get me to vote for him. But I now feel like I have to really evaluate the role of Vice President, and how much power Sarah Palin could potentially have in the Presidency. Do her strengths make up for John McCain’s shortcomings? I don’t know how I feel about that yet. I may not know until November.

When I told the SR reporter I didn’t like McCain, he said, “Oh, so were you planning on voting for Obama then?” I think I actually said, “Oh, HELL no!” He asked if I was thinking third party then, and I said possibly, maybe Libertarian candidate Bob Barr.

In retrospect, I really, really wish I would have told the whole truth, and said, “I’d planned to write in the ghost of Barry Goldwater.”

Oh, and on a final note: I don’t care how much frenzy there was over Obama’s speech last night, I think the way this running-mate game played out just did a lot to cook his goose. Captain “Change” picks an old-white-establishment-guy as his running mate. John McCain picks a young, spunky, up-and-coming female reformer for his Veep. Ouch, BHO!

Oh, do I have a gem from the Gem State for you guys.

A buddy of mine sent me the following screenshot:

Click here for the full-resolution image.

In case what we’re lulz-ing over isn’t obvious, here’s a close-up crop of the Boise State University ad from that page:

All hail our destinguished rivals to the south!

Hey, Boise State Junior College - y’all stick to playing football. We Vandals will take care of the thinky stuff.

Blizzard has instituted an insanely improved recruit-a-friend program for World of Warcraft, with really awesome rewards for both the recruiter and the recruit. (Cool mounts, uber-tripled-XP, summons…)

[Insert angst here about how I just recruited two people to WoW within the last month, but don't get credit for them under the new program. AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH. Nerf recruit-a-friend?]

Anyway, if anybody has been considering giving WoW a try, I can hook you up with a 10-day free trial, and we’ll both get some bennies if you sign up for the game. Just shoot me an email (laurel at politicsgunsandbeer dot com) with your name/preferred email address, and I’ll send you the invite.

Oh yeah - we ended up on the Stormscale PvP server, Alliance side. Thanks to everyone who offered me a new home. :)