X for VP

If I were voting (and I don't intend to), I'd be hard pressed to decide among any of the candidates. Not because I think they are all equally evil (they aren't -- each one is evil* in his or her own unique and special way) - but because the direction of the government has almost nothing to do the President's ideology or personality, and certainly not their words.

The best indicator is the choice of Vice President. The President himself (or herself) is utterly powerless without his (or her) appointees, and those appointees are useless without their lackeys and so on down the line. The VP choice is the first official indication of the kind of people who will actually being making most of the decisions that come out of the White House.

The actions of the Reagan administration looked a lot like the GHW Bush philosophy. The Bush I administration acted as stupidly as Quayle looked. The Clinton administration consisted of a lot of very smart geeks who despite Bill's enormous popularity, failed to enact their well-intentioned center-left policies (doesn't that just sound like Al Gore's life story?). I don't think I need to go into any more detail on the current ventriloquist routine going on in Washington, let's just say "case in point."

I know people are talking about how this campaign has gone on too long, but until the running mate choice is made, it won't have even started in my opinion.

*EDIT: Yes, my beloved progressive friends, I am calling Obama evil, not because of his any of his associations or ideology, but because he is a smoker, and not just any smoker, but one who is trying to quit. If he succeeds he will become a member of the second most evil class of people ever, ex-smokers. And we all know that the only people worse than ex-smokers are ex-drunks.