I'd Even Take Bush Over McCain

I recently sent an email to family explaining why I'm voting third-party. One of the reasons I gave was no strong preference between Obama and McCain. Another was that even the seemingly less-bad candidate may turn out worse. For instance, in 2000 I thought "humble foreign policy" Bush was better than "intervention and nation-building forever" Gore. That turned out not to be the case, although we'll never know for sure what a Gore Presidency might have been. (Thankfully, I voted for Harry Browne that year.)

That said, I would prefer Obama over McCain (just not strongly). Heck, I'd probably take a third Bush term over McCain.

• McCain kept crashing planes in the Vietnam War, Bush had the good sense to go AWOL.
• Bush expressed his view that the McCain-Feingold bill was unconstitutional, but signed it anyway. This speaks to what a low-down, cynical character Bush is. But McCain is too stupid to even realize it was unconstitutional.
• Bush may have been a failed businessman, but McCain has never worked in the private sector at all, and seems to have no appreciation that it is the productive power of the voluntary sector, not the military and "public service," that made America great.
• Bush still seems constrained somewhat by reality, which is why we haven't yet gone to war with Iran even after 2+ years of threats; McCain promises that there will be more wars.

In 2000, I may have been mistaken that Bush was better than Gore. But I do believe that, terrible as Bush has been, it's a good thing he beat McCain in the primaries that year. McCain at that time was more unfit for the office than any serious major party candidate in my lifetime, and he's even more unfit now.

That said, Obama has done nothing to earn my support, and it is stupid to vote for the "lesser of two evils" when the chance your lone vote will determine the election is zero, and there may be someone on the ballot you actually prefer.

Besides, voting third-party means the likely winner will have his percentage of the popular vote reduced by that much. If either Obama or McCain wins, it would be ideal if they had less than 40% of the popular vote and realize they have no "mandate" to do as they please. A vote for a third party means a vote for a weakened Presidency. In the end, that might be reason enough.