I know it is early in the game, but

What candidate is really sticking out to you right now? Cuz I gotta say, I look at all of them and go 'meh' right now. I vote issue, not party, and no one is saying enough of what I want right now. On top of that, none of them really just 'stick out' to me as truly likeable.

Unfortunately, few people that I talk to actually pay attention to or care about this type of thing, so I'm coming to you guys for some discussion.

Care to share what pony you have your eye on now, and what issues they are covering that really draw you to them?

I'm really feeling much the same way you are. No one has impressed me with much of anything to date.

Dennis Kucinich, but in the current political climate, he probably has no chance of getting the nomination. Barrack Obama is probably going to be my best bet.

I'm growing fonder of Mike "and the Crazy Old Man Dancers!" Gravel, at least when he actually talks policy and doesn't simply do his tired Howard Beale "All these other candidates are nuts!" shtick.

He's a proponent of the flat tax, which costs him some points in my book, but it's nice to have a full-blown lefty candidate to root for without having to deal with Kucinich's new-age treacle.

In the real world, I'm leaning Obama, although I'd be happy with Edwards and would only grit my teeth occasionally if Hillary got the nod.

On the GOP side, I'm hoping for a dream candidate that will fail so spectacularly that even Gravel could win the general election. I'm still having problems thinking of someone who'll manage to survive the GOP wingnut gauntlet of the primaries and not be greeted with revulsion by the general electorate.

So ideally, it'd be funny as fuck to have the 2008 presidential election be Obama vs. Alan Keyes (yes, he is running), if only since it'd be lopsided to an almost Mondale '84 degree and would cause racist knuckledraggers across the country to implode at the thought of having to pick between two black dudes.

Barring that, I'm hoping Rudy wins the nomination and causes the evangelical wing of the GOP to go third party, which would probably be Brownback or Huckabee. Fingers crossed for Huckabee, if only because I plan to make a fortune selling "I Give A Fuckabee About Huckabee" shirts.

Here's a very long quiz you can take which matches your opinions against candidates' policy statements. I found it pretty interesting.

I think Clinton will probably the Democratic nominee (though she's not my own first choice - that'd be Obama). She's polling highly and in control of a serious money machine. I have no idea who i's going to be on the Republican side. They're all so very, very flawed over there, either too far right for the mainstream or not far enough for the base. Right now Giuliani seems to be getting the most attention, but the better people get to know him, the less they tend to like him, so it's not necessarily to his benefit. I expect that will be a harder-fought contest, abd I think it's too early to make any accurate predictions.

I'm strongly in favor of Obama, though not so confident he'll win the nomination over Hillary. I think his background of drawing disparate groups together as a community organizer is something that could be put to great use on a larger scale repairing our miserable approach to diplomacy and our standing in the international community - something sorely needed from a pragmatic standpoint if we are to fight a worldwide war on terror in a smarter, more practical manner than we have been doing.

I also think he has more credibility than the other major Democratic candidates on the Iraq issue (which could be used to paint them with the same "I voted for the war before voted against it" line the GOP brushed Kerry with), having opposed it from the start - true, he did not have to vote on it as a senator, but he was certainly very publically against it even with potentially high stakes as he was beginning to approach political celebrity status even then.

This is a very interesting question. I had lunch with a long time friend today, who is a staunch conservative and Republican. He was unhappy with the options from the Republican party and felt that his vote this year would become a vote against the Democratic party's candidate but not for the Republican party candidate. My friend does not believe the Republicans have put forward a candidate he could support.

I am the staunch liberal and regretting being forced to cast a vote for Hilary in order to ensure we have a Democratic president when all the time I hoped for the chance to vote for Obama.

What a fucked up situation; we can't get the candidate we want from the Democratic party, and Republicans can't get behind a single candidate except to defeat the Democratic candidate.

You have to admit it'd be rewarding to watch the social and fiscal wings of the party tear it apart. I, for one, long for those days before the Reagan Error, when evangelicals were too disaffected by politics to "dirty" themselves with it.

I mean, really, fiscal conservatives are in some ways more dangerous to the public interest than the culture warriors are, but at least they're mostly rational.

Sorry, what was the question?

MrStitches said:

SPOILERS! (Click to view)

Sorry, what was the question?

Do you know how to use spoilers?

I just took a quick peek at that link and I can't wait to get into it fully. Thanks a lot.

I gotta say, I'm leaning Obama myself. None of the Rep. candidates are even in my personal radar, none are saying close to what I want to hear on most issues.

My closest Republican match was McCain, but there was a ten-point difference between him and my least well-matched Democrat. Like I said, Obama ended up my first choice (a solid liberal on all fronts but with an ability to build coalitions), followed closely by Richardson, who strikes me as a good economic populist, as far as I can tell.

Clinton tied with Kucinich for my third, which I think is pretty funny.

I wish there was a 'most likely to try to avoid making me a widow' candidate.

That'd be either Dennis "Kooky" Kucinich or Ron "KKKrazy" Paul, I'm afraid.

Otherwise, not McCain or Romney. I personally don't have a lot of faith in Clinton's abilities to get us out, either - she comes across as too hardline on the politics of the region. Biden would likely be as bad or worse, though neither of them are fools.

Zarth, your besotted test gave me Paul and Kucinich. Do you know of any organizations I can contact to help me deal with my mental illness?

My condolences. I'd suggest either the Wobblies or the Klan.

I took the quiz but I not going to say who it's say my first choice is, because Zarth would make fun of me and then I would have to kill him. But tied in second place are a whole bunch of Democrats and John McCain. It's too bad McCain has been so stubborn on the Iraq issue, I would really be happy with him otherwise.

Fixed.

Whatever.

So far Kucinich is in the lead for me (on the quiz), but I have plenty of categories to go and have been doing them in order. He is however five statements above the trailing Obama. Oddly, Brownback is placing above Hilary, but like I said I've got a ways to go. I'll keep you all updated, because I know all your worlds revolve around me.

How soon we forget history... Government is not reason. Government is not eloquence. It is force. And, like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.

Obama, followed by Richardson, followed by Kucinich. The nearest Republican (Giuliani) was 10 points away.