I can understand and respect that, Diane. I’m not happy at all with my choices in this election. I hope I’ve made myself clear on that. It’s just that I respect Kerry even less than I respect Bush and I’m not willing to give him a chance.

Chris, I understand the feeling that Cheney’s support of the religious right’s issues set him up for this type of take down but Mary didn’t deserve being brought into this. Since she is an advisor to her father’s campaign I have to assume that the gay marriage debate isn’t a huge issue for her.

Great comments guys.

I have to side with Felix on this ‘Mary Cheney’ issue. My loathing for BUSH & Co. is such that I actually did a little wOOt! when Kerry brought that up —- “Hypocrisy can run, but it can’t hide!” I mean really, …. how better to illustrate the bizarrity of how Bush/Cheney pander to the Religious-Right than that??? In my book, ‘blood is thicker than water’ and you don’t support legislation for political gain that defames the civil-liberties of your blood-bank!

Sorry, Larry, but Kerry/Edwards weren’t the first on this, Dick Cheney himself was. According to Time magazine, Cheney first started using his daughter as an example in August:

Though Cheney and his wife denounced Kerry for his comment, the Vice President had earlier put his daughter’s sexuality squarely in the public arena. When asked in August about gay marriage, Cheney said, “Lynne and I have a gay daughter,” before going on to note that it was the President — who supports a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage — who sets policy.

Y’know what? Kerry’s tossing Mary Cheney into the debate wasn’t necessary, and made me twinge. I didn’t like it either. But politicians sometimes say absurd things under pressure: Bush gets to claim he never said he was unconcerned with bin Laden, Kerry gets to trot out Mary Cheney, Cheney himself gets to lie about never meeting Edwards in the Senate… sadly this stuff is part of politics in the present era. Simply put, I find too much hatred and stupidity and just plain evil in Bush for me to wish anything other than his immediate, permanent return to Crawford TX. I will never respect Bush or anything about him; I’m willing to give Kerry a chance. (At least he reads. As James Taylor put it, “Vote for the smart one.”)

Only if we can do it in between hurricanes. LOL

Felix, it came down to understanding that for the forseeable future our foreign policy and our involvment in Iraq is set in stone. I really question Bush’s competency in this area but I also have to question Kerry’s competence as well. The solutions that Kerry has given us so far is just as broken as Bush’s and I’ve seen no indication of any great leadership skills displayed by him so far in this election campaign. He sure hasn’t shown me he has any ability whatsoever to pull together a coalition that can give our troops some relief.

So I was looking at a wash. The use of Mary Cheney’s sexuality by the Kerry campaign was really much more than just the weight of one hair to me. I understand that the marketing engines have distorted the true character of both Kerry and Edwards but their bringing in Ms. Cheney into the campaign… and then Elizabeth Edwards remark about the Cheneys being ashamed of their daughter was so far over the edge for me that it can’t just be the marketing guys. There are serious character flaws being displayed here.

I tell you, out of the four, Theresa Heinz Kerry is the only one I’d give you two cents for.

I am afraid that I am being drawn to vote for Kerry. So we cancel each other’s vote. That is democracy in action.

Ah, but since we live in different states we don’t really cancel each other out. Georgia will send fifteen electorates to the electoral college who will vote for Bush. Tennessee will send eleven who will vote for Bush. The election is much closer in Tennessee than it is in Georgia but both states will still go with Bush. That’s a republic in action. For us to actually make a difference we need to move to Florida.