Obama also voted for that bailout. He and McCain are pretty much the same.

So, you voting for Nader, Barr or McKinney?

Bush was up by 2.4% the day before the election in 2004, so your premise is invalid. Check your facts first, please, before you accuse. Polling is an inexact science, but to glom onto some desperate "the polls are always wrong" theory in the hopes of a miracle McCain comeback is just, well, sad.

Did you see McCain on SNL last night?

Was he mean?

Was he evil incarnate?

When are you going to stop writing like an angry 12 year old?

When are you going to stop writing like an angry 12 year old?

-- something stinks

...but you do. SNL is not germane to the article.

I started out many years ago as a young Republican, proud of my belief in small government and fiscal conservatism. My father was a war hero (Viet Nam, when being a hero meant NOT getting shot down) with a building named after him on an Air Force Base.

Today, I am registered as 'no party affiliation'. I do not believe in the big government corporate welfare state of the neocons, and I HATE religion being taken as such an important definer in politics. Small government means your religion is your own business.

I have lived in 2 'socialist' countries, Sweden and The Netherlands. The people are richer, better educated, healthier, live longer, have less crime, and rate much higher on the 'happiness' index than Americans. As a small business owner, I pay more in taxes here than I did there, but here I get NOTHING for my money. The big banks do, though.

I have voted for Obama. He represents a re-balancing of the scales to help the middle class. That is not socialism, that is patriotism. If you make less than $300,000 a year, and support McCain, you have been duped. What made this country great, was a strong middle class, when blue collar workers were also middle class.

Obama is winning, because millions of people are behind him, donating money, canvassing neighborhoods etc. He has united America, while McCain tries to keep it divided. You tell me who the patriot is.

Many seem perplexed as to why middle class American will trade their extra $1000 dollar tax cut that Obama's "promises" offer over those of John McCain.

There are two big reasons:

1) Many Americans would rather have a JOB next year, than $1000 or $1800 this year and be left without a Job next year, once Obama's tax hikes hit the 250,000 plus crowd (you know the guys, and gals who sign your paychecks). When that group starts paying higher taxes, they'll need to cut back on payroll. Some people will lose jobs.

2) McCain has a long, long record on being a tax cutter, and though his promised cuts are modest by comparison to those of the Big O, they are likely to come to fruition. Obama's are only promises, and once elected, given his inverse record regarding taxes, they may not be forthcoming.

So, when you pro-Obamaniacs puzzle over why McCainacs seem at first blush to be hypnotized (as you say) think long and hard on this. You can add to this the likelihood that Obama and the Congress will end Bush's tax cuts, and so, in the end people will end up paying about the same.

Everyday, tens of thousands of Americans lose their jobs under Republican rule. So, your fairy tale of rich people employing poor people should be shelved.

Regarding McCain, I might have voted for him eight years ago. John Stewart just said the same thing, but today's McCain is a man without honor and a man without a single maverick's bone. He's had a skeletalectomy and is just another sliming slug.

Sorry folks, I'm a new forum member. For the past few weeks, I've been reading many of the comment letters posted on Salon. I have been trying to get some kind of insight into how people are thinking, what they are writing and the whole decision making process. Why am I for the candidate I'm for? How can I understand the way our country has been divided?

Well, I'm still puzzled. BUT I've been able to decide what's important to me.

-I want an intelligent, articulate, thinking president who wants to build instead of tear down. Could McCain have gone through 30 minutes on national TV without one bad word about anybody? I love to see him do it. McCain's finest moment was when he grabbed the mic from that rabid woman and said Obama was a fine, Christian man. That was presidential.

-Palin does matter. Presidents do die in office. Could she fulfill my criteria for president? I want a statesperson and a consensus builder not a pit bull with lipstick. As a mom, can I support a person who has so clearly placed ambition before family? I expect my kids to attend school, get good grades, go to college and obtain the skills to make them productive citizens. Those are my family values. What are hers?

-I want our country to have a sense of purpose and unity. I worry about the divide the Republicans have been encouraging. Can we work together? We must work together.

-I wonder just where many of those folk at the Pennsylvania rallies on the Socialism spectrum? Are they on "social" security? Do they qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit on their income taxes? Are they even paying taxes? Are their kids and grandkids in public schools? Do they drive on public roads?

-I love the mesmerizing voice of Barak Obama. It's hypnotic just like MLK, JFK, FDR and William Jennings Bryant. Good message, too.

I'm voting with my heart and mind.

I've read a few posts suggesting pro McCain posters are hired guns, and are getting paid by the word. Absurd! Look, average Americans just don't like to be called racists, and don't like it when people who aren't racists are attacked as such. I'd bet most of you don't know what "racist" means.

racism |ˈrāˌsizəm|

noun

the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, esp. so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races.

• prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on such a belief

cf.

racial |ˈrā sh əl|

adjective

of or relating to race : a racial minority.

• on the grounds of or connected with difference in race

If people are fired up, it's precisely because very few believe that one candidate is superior to the other based on "race". Rather it's ideology that matters. Barack Obama has shown by his own words (several recently discovered interviews), his actions (voting record, teachings both in the classroom and to ACORN workers), and his affiliations (William Ayers, Rev. Jeremiah Wright's Afrocentric Liberation Theology, and self confessed attraction to Marxist ideas in college) that his is in fact a champion of Socialism with Marxist tendencies. If you want this in a President, then fine, but know what you're getting.

I've gotta go, cause I'm not getting paid.