Who to vote for?

I'll start by acknowledging that most of us agree that we can't fully back any of the remaining candidates because they pale in comparison to Joe and everything he believes in. So, many plan to still vote for Joe, which is what I will probably end up doing. Before I make a final decision, I want to look at it in a little different way and get your opinions on it.

What would be the most strategic vote for Joe and his ideas and beliefs? In other words, Who would most work with Joe if he remains in the senate or best utilize him in their administration?

My thoughts at this point are that votes for Edwards could help insure a brokered convention, in which I believe Joe could be a big player, but I'm not sure who would best pair up with Joe in whatever capacity they might want him.

what it is (but don't get too technical!) -- but how would voting for JE insure a brokered convention?

My personal feeling about who would best work with Joe would be Obama. I keep hearing he's REALLY smart and I think he realizes what wisdom and expertise Joe could bring to an administration.

Not too sure the Clintons would be as receptive. Plus, Joe said he had to fight with Clinton for two years to get him to go to Bosnia.

PS -- Caroline Kennedy endorsed Obama. Usually I don't pay any attention to endorsements, and this won't make me into a Obama SUPPORTER, but I respect her. She and a friend wrote a book on the Bill of Rights a few years back which tells me she's involved in what's going on in our country, and she chose Obama over Clinton, so.....

If they continue to split votes and nobody gets enough delegates, then after the first ballot (I believe), all of the delegates get released and they can vote for whoever they want. At that point pretty much everything is up in the air and there will be a lot of deal making. It's my hope that if that happened Joe would still be in the running, or would be able to deal his way into whatever he wants to do.

So the short version is, if JE takes enough of the delegates, then either he throws his support to one of them for the VP, or it gets really messy in determining who gets the nomination. I don't know when the last time a nominee was selected that way, but i believe it was some time before Kennedy.

be an answer to this country's prayers?

Thanks for the explanation. I think this delegate thing is kind of wacky anyway. I think it should be a popular vote, period.

There are definitely vital flaws with our electoral system. I think we need to make a lot of serious changes to give power back to the people. We need to find a way to get money and the Media conglomerates out it and level the playing field for all candidates. The candidate whith the best ideas and most likely to implement them should be the one elected, not the ones who can spend the most on advertising and traveling, or the ones that the MSM builds up. We need to give people a direct vote for who they want. The electoral college is past its time. I also think that all primaries and caucuses should be on the same day. In addition to that, there should be no exit polling on Presidential elections and results can't be released until the last polling place has closed. I would hate to be voter in the west and know going in that the candidate I favor is going to lose.

I don't know how we change it though. It's something that would have to come from the people and they don't seem to care enough to push for it. The elected officials don't want to change it because it's the system that got them elected. In Joe's book he talked about the reaction he got from other senators when he purposed campaign finance reform early in his career. I can only imagine it would be ever worse now that there is so much more money tied up in elections.

but isn't needed now. Ideally, the people should be able to vote on how we want the elections run. But trying to get the RIGHT to get to vote on our RIGHTS isn't easy. :eyes:

I also like the idea of all the primaries being held on one day. But all the "early primary/caucus" states would balk because it's big money for them as it is now. It's always the money.

I think Mike Gravel liked the idea of having a run-off vote.

When I lived in Seattle they didn't used to kind of blackout the results waiting for the West Coast polls to close. Although I always said "I'm going to vote NO MATTER WHAT", the one time I didn't vote early in the morning and by after work I knew it was curtains for my candidate, it was really hard to drag my butt to the polls.

My head tells me to vote for Obama.
I like his idea of open government. I like the idea that because he is who he is and his backround will send a new message to the world. I worry about Hillary getting the nomination and how the Republicans will come out to vote, just to vote against her...about how divisive her presidency would be. I think Obama will be less likely to start new wars - and I am really pissed that Hillary voted for Kyl/Lieberman . . . but Obama didn't even bother to show up that day, so again, we aren't really sure how he would vote, and who knows - he may have just voted 'present'.

But my heart tells me to vote for Hillary.
I really like her. I like how fiesty she is. I love her passion. I think she would be a better President than Bill.
She is ready on day one, and no matter what falls on her lap, I think she will be able to handle it.

And another thing about Obama - people really say he is a great speaker. Personally, I can't stand to listen to him. His manner of speaking actually reminds me of booosh, unable to finish a complete sentence without taking a break. And then he does this whole preacher thing while he is speaking. What is that?
But obviously, I am in the minority.

I know that Biden was as close to perfect of a candidate for me, and I am really trying to put those feelings aside.

I'm so conflicted!