FIRST A2K STRAW POLL White House 2008

I'm going with Rudy for now. If he ends up running against Obama in the general election, then I'll vote for Obama. I can't see voting in the Democratic primary in IL. Obama will take it in a landslide. I'd rather make a difference on the Republican side.

OK, a strategic vote - thanks for the clarification.

That makes 2 for Obama, 1 for Giuliani and 1 for Democratic-Other (Dys, was that you?)

Oh, I havent voted myself yet.. (yay! Foreigners get to vote!)

18 views and just four votes? Are there so many of you who wouldnt know who you'd vote for now?

Remember - its a year to go till the actual primaries. This is just an early straw poll. You can vote for whom you like best right now - and when you change your opinion, change your vote accordingly in the next straw poll..

I voted Clinton.

Rudy for now.

Too bad we can't rank them. At this point in time it's Obama for me, with Edwards coming in a close second. I won't get to vote in any primaries, so I'm at the mercy of you partisan folk to choose wisely. I'll have to make my real choice when presented with the real choices. I hope that some of the good candidates remain, but judging on past races, I don't really expect them to.

If I could vote in a primary, I'd go Republican - other.

Best way to spread my bet.

I just voted Demo - other, as the fellow I want to look harder at is Richardson, while I waffle between Obama, Edwards, and Gore, along with Richardson, in no special order. Maybe Kucinich. Research to do.
On the Republican side, I want to look at Bloomberg and Giuliani further, but I can't presently foresee going there.

Some goodly part of my demo waffling has to do with who could win as opposed to whose views coincide with mine. The other part of my waffling is, well, which do I really want to win, never mind presently ascribed win-ability.

I registered Independent when I moved here, for the first time ever (irritated at the Dems for being such petunias) and plan now to reregister as Dem to have a voice in the primary. I see Beth's point about registering Repub in primary, but I just am not. My skin might fall off.

I voted Edwards.

Last December, I still placed him in the category of people that I would, were I allowed to vote, vote for only "dutifully", whereas I said I'd vote "happily" for Obama or Richardson. But since then Ive read a bunch of stuff that made me ever more enthusiastic about him.

I still dont think he is strong personally, as a politician (and I still resent the way he messed up in the Veep debate in '04), but I really like his politics, and I like the priorities he's made in them.

He's chosen a central plank, fighting poverty in America, and he's stuck to it through two years of campaigning even though and when it's hardly a point-scoring profile. While all Democrats talk nice about unions, Edwards has been out on the picket line a bunch of times.

Obama has the vision thing, but to be honest, his vision thing is starting to make me impatient. He has lofty words about transcending partisanship - Edwards was out fighting for the unions. I dont want vision - I want someone whose heart is with the bread and butter issues that determine your average- and lower-income American's day-to-day.

But of course, today's announcement has put me right back in the camp of doubters again.

His wife is incurably sick. Everybody's sympathising with them now, and so am I. Mrs Edwards is apparently a wonderful woman. But is it nice, or even smart, to run for the Presidency if your wife is, sooner or later, going to die? Even if she wants you to run, tells you to run - what when she'll be worse? What when she dies? Uncomfortable questions, but.. She could be fine for years still - but she could also suddenly get wose. Does he really want to be being President when that happens? Do we want him to be?

So now I'm hurled back into neutral mode again. Yet still I voted for Edwards, because it would in any case be good for the Democrats if they keep having him as the third person in the race. To avoid Obama vs Hillary to become a one-dimensional slugfest. To keep them both honest. And above all, to keep pushing for more populist, progressive politics. To keep steering discussion back to poverty, employment, costs of living, health care, whenever discussion becomes too much focused on le politique pour le politique, or gets sidetracked in the liberal, suburban kind of post-materialist blue state issues.

But here, but here FreeDuck and ehBeth, you can freely vote!

To take part in the A2K straw poll, you dont need to be registered as Dem or Rep, you dont even need to be American!

Even I can vote!

At the moment - George Phillies, Libertarian Party.

I like Virginia's rules on primaries the best. You don't have to be registered as a party member in order to vote in their primary, but you can vote in only one primary. I think it should be like that everywhere.

oh I voted all right

I can tolerate most of the Democratic options, the Republican front-runners give me the creepy-crawlies after about 3 years of reading more and more about them - so I'd go Repub - other in the primaries as there are a couple of options that look slightly better to me.

That way, whichever party wins (if my Repub - other survived the primaries), I'd have two legit/tolerable voting choices.

I'm an {R} other.....Fred Thompson.

Tell me more? I know very little about him..

Gore/Obama. My dream ticket.

I chipped in for Al Gore.

That's how it is here too, FD.

My vote:

Hillary (God help me, I tried not to, but)Clinton.

Obama really doesn't want the job. He's right when he says he's been drawn along by our own need for something new.

Elizabeth Edwards will not live much past the first primaries. Heartbreaking.

Rudy. Christ, he wasn't that good a mayor. Tough, ballbuster, but was always screwing somebody on the side, sometimes marrying them but not always. His one strong suit for me was that he seemed to be everywhere. Every police shooting, every electrical outage, every hostage stituation, major fire or bar fight , Rudy would be there and have something to say. Okay for a mayor, A president??, fugettaboutdit.

Joe(who ever wins two out the first three primaries is it)Nation