Bob Barr is running for president. "To the extent that people have a choice," Barr reasons, "it's the choice of voting for the party of big government or the party of bigger government." He wants troops home from Iraq. He is for the repeal of McCain-Feingold. He seeks deep cuts in government and taxes. I'm for all that and I vote in the bluest of the blue states, so putting a check mark next to such a maverick candidate is enticing. Voting--entering that partitioned booth, drawing that curtain, marking that Australian ballot, anonymously dropping it into a box--is ostensibly a private affair. But the voter feels the eyes of all his friends and family glaring at him. The peer pressure allows for a vote next to "D" or a vote next to "R," but as soon as your pencil drifts to fill in the circle next to a candidate without one of those magic letters next to his name the peer pressure moves your pencil back to "D" or "R" as if the ballot were a Oujia board and your pencil possessed. People vote with the crowd and not with their hearts. The Oujia board phenomenon, perhaps as much as any systemic handicap, makes Barr's undertaking doomed from the get-go. But there's honor in lost causes, especially when the cause they push is your own.

That honor in the lost cause is a beautiful thing. But ultimately, in today's somewhat 'rigged' system, it ends up as just another protest vote. With this season’s cavalcade of really bad candidates, the system has again left us with the one who is a lesser bag o’ $hite than the other.

Under circumstances where I believe that both candidates are about the same, I could afford to vote for a protest candidate. But under much pain and trepidation, I must vote for f’ing Juan McAmnesty as I worry an Obama Presidency would be very dangerous for this country on many levels.

As an aside, when I go into my local voting place and give them my name and they see the lone ‘R’ on the page, I get some of most odd looks.

I think they're looking for my brown shirt, jack boots and guns.

thats funny, here were i live i am the only R on the books. they look at me as an alien. lol. i was all set to back mccain, i mean he is a nice guy and has been though hell, but i do not like his views on some things. but now, hmm i might just vote for barr.

Funny, the Liberals actually get disturbed when you're not one of them. Which makes it all the more interesting when considering that the adjective 'liberal' defines as open-minded, broadminded, moderate, noninterventionist, freethinking, tolerant and laissez-faire, but the current day noun resembles none of these meanings.

I actually hope Obama wins, and the Dems get super-majorities in both houses. We need the next Jimmy Carter and Co. to get the next Ronnie.

If it weren't for his pathetic stand on the Iraq War, Bob would easily get my vote.
McCai disappoints me terribly!