I register to vote - but don't specify a party. I consider myself to be neither republican nor democrat.

I do things this way for a few reasons - 1. so I can vote for whichever candidate that I feel to be the best regardless of his political assignment.

But also because to be labeled to a political party means that I have to sit by and listen to others who bad mouth the opposite and thus feel responsible.

My outlook on this whole political thing is that when the republicans are in the white house we listen to all the democrats complain about how the republicans carry the ball all they while they forget about the screw ups their candidate made the last time they held the ball. Then when the democrats are in the white house the role is reversed and the republicans complain - every one thinks they can do better than the next - funny thing is I can't recall the last time we had a really good president...

can you?

Well, first of all, I certainly would vote for a republican if I thought he/she was the best candidate for the position. It hasn't happened yet but anything is possible....

There certainly is quite a bit of partisan bickering, but I think when you really look at the records you see that while sometimes things are more or less along party lines, there are also plenty of times when the vote for what they believe. There have been quite a few major initiatives of the Bush Whitehouse that have not passed because he didn't have the support within his own party.

As far as presidents go, let me start by saying that I really only have W, Clinton, Bush, & Reagan to compare. Jimmy Carter was there when I was born, but I don't think that qualifies me to speak about his Presidency.

Clinton was not perfect, but I have to say I agreed with most of what he stood for and he tried to move things in the right direction. I would also say that he did move things in the right direction. I also could care less if the man good some intern-love... I do wish that it had been handled in a better way, but I still don't even know that I can find fault with him for that either. There are times when you are in a bad situation you find it easier to take the wrong path than the best path.

Now, I would argue, that you if you sat down, you probably could decide fairly easily which party you agree more with. Having done that, you could go to caucuses and influence the other members of that party to adopt your opinions and effect change throughout the party. It is probably really slow going at first, I've only just started down that path myself, but I feel it's my duty as an american.

And if you don't get the results that you want, you can still always vote for the other guy...

So I will detract from the seriousness to say...
You numbered your reasons! I am so glad to see that my dorkiness is finally rubbing off on you!

I'm definitely a supporter of "voting for who I think is right" and not out of fear. It's been a repeat topic on my blog. But, many people feel that my stance is bad for the country because voting for a third party or independent will put Bush back in office. Is that my fault? No. It's not my fault that the Democratic nominee isn't a strong enough candidate to withstand pressure from an independent or 3rd party candidate's presence.

By the way, good to see another Kucinich supporter. Yeeeeah!