The ONLY reason to vote for a presidential candidate is because he or she is the BEST person to make the U.S. the best nation it can be. It is not for reasons of race or gender or party or what church they go to. The elections in our country have, in my lifetime (56), have always come down to looks or power or dirty tricks or gun rights or religion.. and many others. I have always tried to look at the big picture, not only what effects our daily lives but how this world is going to continue. When I was very young, it seemed simpler in that the U.S.A. helped keep the world safe from evil dictators who have no respect for others. In our current world and especially over the last 8 years, in my opinion and many others, we have become a bully nation who says it must be our way or else. This country had its best chance right after 9/11 when we had the sympathy of the entire world and we could have possibly grouped together the largest and most powerful amount of allied nations to go after all ternary in the world, but we had to be impatient and our president and his two cronies had to push ahead and not wait for anyone else. In order to move as fast as they wanted in a direction of cowboy methodology they falsified information to strike terror in everyone to launch a war that should have never been started, and this has become common knowledge to all of us now.

This president has twice, by the narrowest of margins, through trickery and who knows what other methods, managed to be elected both times, when the popular vote said otherwise.

Our voting process and politics has become so corrupt and untrusted that things such as twisting of words and words of people other than the candidates themselves have become THE main topics of the mainstream media, repeatedly to take attention away from discussing the real issues.

For this reason, it is imperative that we DO NOT waist time discussing why Hillary may be able to get the votes of these “specific” so called blue collar workers is these states who have just happened to be the last states having primaries and thus were getting the latest media attention. It is obvious that despite outright racism that Barack Obama is facing, he still speaks at an event and draws record breaking crowd numbers. This MEANS something. These people who have given Barack the most votes, will be the ones who will elect him President. For that matter, as everyone is talking about how Hillary is getting the “blue collar workers” does anyone think for a minute that these same voters will actually vote for her again in November? Then they are fooling themselves. They will then vote for McCain, and making Hillary the candidate would have been in vain. This is what they are counting on!!!

No, we need to LOOK at and LISTEN to the numbers that have chosen Barack Obama for the Democratic nominee and then he can ask Hillary to be the FIRST woman vice-president, which would still be just as inspiring to all women and young girls for the future! This duo will then show the world how strongly this nation is going to CHANGE for the better for the future and then, possibly, we may begin making friends in the world rather than more generations of enemies.

Look, you see guns as being needed to insure your liberty, but there is a problem with that: They won't work.

If you want to be able to stand up to the government you need well armed and trained militias that have fighter jets, chemical and biological weapons, at the very least rocket launchers, and preferably a nuclear arsenal.

That is without even going into armoured vehicles, bullet proof vests, state of the art field medics, a satelite system that can spot troop movements from space, easy and secure communications and a core leadership of such a rebellion that won't get caught out because somebody thought it was more valuable to vote against some common sense laws on guns than to vote for the right to privacy or habeas corpus.

The gun isn't obsolete, but it isn't the great equaliser the founding fathers saw it as. A guerilla fighting force could conceivably, while taking heavy losses, make a war of attrition work.

But the media is controlled by pretty much the same people you would be rebelling against so finding recruits to make up for the high mortality rate would be a bit hard, particularly seen as whoever Diebold declares the winner will have at least a thin veneer of legitimacy.

The first two things to go in a dictatorship aren't the guns and the ammo, they are the free press and privacy. Two rights which threaten despots far more than guns do. America's press is losing its freedom and privacy went the way of the dodo about seven years ago.

You think calling rural america "hillbillies" is respect?

THE HEART OF AMERICA HAS SPOKEN! Senator Clinton or Senator McCain.

i appreciate your letters because they gave insight that i did not know about that area of the country. but, in spite of all that, you must acknowledge the role that race plays here. 20% of ky voters said race played a factor. in southern ga, police are bracing for retaliations against blacks if obama gets the nomination. apparently some of the very same people you claim can be won over are being very vocal about what they're gon' do if a nigga gets elected.

the issue that obama (and dems) face is how much to pander to these people. some may be exactly what you say, waiting for obama to actually say something to them. but i am hard-pressed to believe that is even 50% of the population. if rural america gets "ignored" it will be because they took themselves out of the picture. if you state that race affects your decision, then there is no reason for a black man to continue a conversation with you. obama does not have to disrespect himself in order to respect rural america.

others have said this much better than i can but we are moving past race as a society. if rural america cannot keep up, they get left behind. and they will only have themselves to blame. i understand they live in a very insular world, but the world is larger than their neighborhood/county/whatever. it's time for them to join the rest of us.

and phylmom, i am a life-long democrat. i made the comment i did to point out that while the media likes to say that inner-city blacks get the majority of welfare money, that cannot be true based on demographics and economics. that was my only point.

and if obama does not win, i'll be independent starting next year. not because i think the dems will have blown it, but more because i'm less and less enamored with party politics. the way hiliary ran her campaign once she started losing disgusted me.