Reply #96: I agree

[MarkusQ]

In the primaries, when he was trying to be a centralist version of Dean, he looked much better than when he was trying to be a centralist version of Bush.

I am a Republican, and a Conservative. I decided early on that I would vote for who ever most clearly endorsed my values:

• Honesty (that lets Bush out)
  
• Prudence (that lets Bush out)
  
• Valuing life (that lets any pro-war candidate out)
  
• Respect for individual rights & dignity (that lets any pro-patriot act candidate out, and Bush for Abu Ghraib, and any pro-corporate-rights-over-human-rights candidate)
  
• Fiscal responsibility (Almost all of them flunked this one)
  

I might have considered Dean; as it was I wound up voting for Badnaric because he went to jail for trying to serve court papers on the debate and no one spoke up for him. Kerry could have had my vote in a heart beat if he had spoken up for the minority candidates, or hammered on any of the points you mentioned.

--MarkusQ

P.S. But I'm still not dropping the fraud issue: Even if it had no effect on the outcome, electoral fraud is wrong. Saying that we should drop it is like telling a rape victim they should drop it because they didn't get pregnant.