Lets pretend that all things are EQUAL

Just focus on the issues that are important to you individually. Do not factor in whether you think a candidate is "electable". Who would you vote for in the PRIMARIES.

Why do you think he is ineffective?

His positions are so far left that I just can't see him getting much accomplished. In saying that, I do feel like this country is on the verge of moving much farther to the left. Maybe in another twenty years.

Maybe in another 20 years, if we are still a free nation and not a facist state

If a few of the stores get national non stop coverage, their sales are going to be better than the store with almost no advertising at all. Throw in that when the store did get advertising ABC cropped the store out of its pictures and took it out of its polls when it looked good to people.

For some reason allot of people don't understand advertising and the American public, it works.

Edwards and Kucinich are at the top of every poll like this that I see.

My dream--Kucinich/Edwards in 08

Pretty damned important. So, in addition to looking at a candidates whose ideas align with mine, I also look for someone who can make things work in Washington without selling their soul.

Taken to absurd lengths, that would be Biden, because he built the gearboxes for many of the levers one has to pull. Taken on resume alone, you'd think Richardson -- but DC doesn't reward his kind of competence (remember Jimmy Carter, the greatest ex-president America has ever produced?). So I'm left with Clinton, with whom I agree most of the time, and who I'm convinced can be a decent executive, and who has the heavy iron of Bill at her side to increase her throw weight.

Obama has charisma but his ideas are unseasoned; Edwards is unraveling, and I don't like that in a candidate who has to face the 'Lican attack machine. Kucinich can't govern, IMO, because he's too far outside the DC mainstream, and as much as we may deplore the DC mainstream it's a fact of life that can't be eradicated or ignored (over time, it *maybe* could be improved).

I wish Hill were more populist, less triangular, more genuine. But I do think she can win and govern and those two issues are among my top 5.

and I respect that. IMHO, I think what we need is someone who is outside the DC mainstream, someone who will do things differently. I think we need a drastic change, but seems like I am in the minority.

Let me clarify this, I DO NOT HATE HILLIARY, but I just don't see how she can help me. Isn't that what democracy is, voting for your interests?

And who can also handle the DC mainstream and maybe even kick a little Georgetown/WaPo butt: Al Gore. Compared to Kucinich, he's not quite so close to being in the trenches with the angels, but he'd make a heck of a prez.

Can you imagine where New Orleans would be today if Gore had been in office when Katrina hit?

Why isn't he running?

He's convinced he can do more good as a voice of change on the climate issue than as US president.

Also, Bush has fucked things up so thoroughly that the next president (regardless of party) is almost certainly going to be branded a failure because he or she won't get a tenth of his/her program accomplished -- damage control and disaster response will be the only thing there's any time or money for.

Frankly, whoever wins in 2008 is going to be a one-term sacrifice on the alter of Bushian excess.

as a whole. I know some people see it as all about them, but I think that's unfortunate.

I can't think about how it benefits everyone. I only have one vote, and I think that I have to use that to best benefit my life.