Personally, I’d go with the right nut. I think the left nut is the important one.

A) a massive, invasive, ever-encroaching federal government that’s used to promote center-left ideology,
B) a massive, invasive, ever-encroaching federal government that’s used to promote center-right ideology.

is like asking if you’d rather have your left nut cut off or take a hot poker in the eye, then say “no, neither of those choices appeals to me. Next time, if you want my vote, put up someone who represents LESS government.”

The argument is not that an Obama victory is a reason to vote 3rd party. The arguement is don’t vote for Obama (or McCain) if they overwhelmingly support an ideology that you reject.

1. “McCain is going to lose anyway”: Apparently, you haven’t been paying attention to US Politics over the last 8 years. In 2000, for only the second time in history, a President was selected who did not win the popular vote. Since that time, the voter purging and use of untrustworthy e-voting machines have only increased. Again, in 2004, we saw that the polls greatly over-estimated Kerry’s chances.

2. The Bradley Effect: If you are unfamiliar with the term, it refers to people making more publicly acceptable claims in polls, but actually voting in a bigoted manner when in the booth. We did not see the Bradley Effect impact Obama when it was only Democrats voting in primaries – but in the national election Obama will need independents’ votes who may be predisposed to support a white candidate without the middle name Hussein when they finally step behind the curtain.

3. It shows your naive understanding of the process in that you are willing to attack candidates who are able to accept their own political realities while still trying to push the envelope. Unlike Ron Paul, who has never accomplished a single thing,

4. In the past several decades, it has been Republicans who have grown both our deficit and government size. Under that Tax-and-Spend liberal Bill Clinton, we cut welfare rolls in half, enjoyed a balanced budget and then tax-surpluses, and shrunk the overall size of government relative to the economy.

5. Warren Buffet wagered $1 million against all fortune 500 CEO’s that not a single one of them could prove they have a higher tax burden than their own secretaries. To date, no Fortune 500 CEO has stepped forward. In reality, over the last 28 years the tax burden now falls more heavily upon the middle and lower-middle class than it does upon the wealthy, while inequality continues to grow. At this point, a Flat Tax would actually be more fair to the middle class, considering how lopsided our loophole system has turned in favor of the wealthy. I will see increases in my taxes, as will many people in my family, but we are all voting for Obama. We are already redistributing the wealth – it is just that at the moment we are redistributing it up in corporate welfare and bailouts.

6. As a thoughtful, intelligent person, I figured by now that you would have understood the political realities that an elected official must face. You may think that drugs should be legalized, but you recognize the reality of what could happen to you if you light up in the middle of a restaurant – so you don’t. In the same way, Barack Obama and other well-meaning politicians recognize that voting against the PATRIOT Act or a bailout means they can stay another day and fight for things like getting us out of Iraq or supporting SCHIP. There is a reason why Ron Paul ranks 174th in effectiveness in the House despite his seniority — http://www.congress.org/congressorg/power_rankings/power_card.tt?id=567. Hell, Ron Paul isn’t even in the Top 10 Representatives in his own state of Texas. Dr. No is a Gimmick for which you have fallen.

7. In many states, you can’t even vote for a 3rd party (write-ins are discarded). Way to be awesome and tell your readers to go and vote in a way that will literally result in their votes being thrown away.

At the end of the day, you can be 1 of 2 people. You can be the person who chooses to pick a team in the Phillies vs. the Rays even though your favorite team (go Braves) didn’t make it to the championship. Or, you can be the idiot who roots for a team that isn’t even in the game.

If you want to support 3rd parties – fine with me – but do it before the final election. Go get ballot signatures. Donate to your favorite candidate. Canvas, call, etc. But now that there are only 2 – you do have a choice.

http://www.lp.org/platform

I’m not aware of anything like it in Europe.

I don’t hate/descriminate against anyone who flees their country for the UK, but I do not live our goverment going above and beyond to make them overly welcome ££££££££. Lopsided equality – love it.