Obama has officially lost my vote

[howeird]

I have nothing against Joe Biden. Obama has lost my vote by naming a running mate before he has officially been nominated. On top of his arrogant European tour and elitist Hawaiian vacation, this is just too much.

I'm a stickler for people following their own rules, which is why I don't read a lot of fantasy novels - most fantasy authors keep making up rules and exceptions to them as they go, and that's cheating. I like sci-fi because once the nature of the broken rule is established (warp drive, time machine, silicon life forms, etc.) the author stays within that framework.

The rules for Obama were simple:
1. There's an election by the delegates at the convention. No matter what the pundits and second-guessers say the vote total will be, it's not over till the delegates vote.

2. You don't get to choose a running mate until you are the official candidate.

It's called democracy. Obama apparently prefers the Chicago-style version.

Comments

[yourbob.livejournal.com]

Honest query - where have you been the last umpteen years? The V.P. nominee has been picked by the presumed pres nom before the convention for at least thirty years or so. Ever since the death of brokered conventions. Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush all did it. I'm pretty sure Carter and Ford did it too. It's what's done. The only way it would not be done is if there were a real chance it would actually be a brokered convention.

And actually, in the U.S. for the last four hundred years or so it's called Representative Democracy, not Democracy. And anyway Obama's playing by his PARTY rules. Democracy has nothing to do with that.

[howeird]

I guess I'm just stuck in my childhood, when they did things the way I think they ought to be done.

[smallship1.livejournal.com]

Well, me too, ideally. The idea of paying most of a pound for a Mars bar horrifies me, but I'm not going to get away with suing a shopkeeper because he won't sell me one for thruppence. And all this swearing on television...

The impression I've been getting, to be honest, was that Obama lost your vote a long time ago when he failed to be the candidate you wanted, and you were just waiting for him to do something to which you could materially object, so that you could take it away. I apologise unreservedly if that is in any way inaccurate.

It seems to me that if you want the Republicans out, the best way to assist that process is to steel yourself and vote Democrat, but that is between you and your conscience. If you truly feel there is no material difference between the parties or the candidates, then it doesn't matter whom you vote for, or even if you vote at all. This does, however, seem on the face of it (and from another country, admittedly) a rather flimsy reason for making that decision.

[howeird]

Prices go up, vocabulary allowed on TV expands, these are things I accept. But prefabricated political conventions rub me the wrong way. I guess I preferred when they were fabricated live, in smoke-filled rooms.

Obama lost your vote a long time ago
You are 100% correct. Well 99%, at least. The 1% is had he waited till after the vote to choose a VP candidate, and had he chosen someone who was not a Washington insider, he would have gotten my vote.

steel yourself and vote Democrat
What's hidden between the lines here is I remember Lyndon Johnson as the Peace Candidate, the one who promised to get us out of Vietnam, and Barry Goldwater as the hawk. Johnson was elected, and we got 4 more years of war. Former Air Force General Goldwater would probably have ended it in a year, one way or the other. And it was Kennedy who got us into the war in the first place.

[bovil.livejournal.com]

So you're saying you're going to vote for McCain, or that you're not going to vote for President (or are you going to vote third-party, not that there's any difference)?

There's no rule saying that Obama can't pick his running mate, it's just meaningless (officially) until the convention ratifies his nomination (and that's what it is, he's likely got the delegates, the hold-the-line Hillary crowd even knows it) and his selection.

[howeird]

I don't think I'm going to vote for president.

As for the Veep choice, as yourbob points out it's been the thing to do ever since I stopped paying attention to conventions, but I still don't like it.

I just plain don't trust Obama, and can't see putting another Republican in office.

Something to think about: If you cast your mind back to four years ago, John Kerry announced his choice for running mate was between McCain and Edwards. Joe Biden endorsed the Kerry-McCain ticket.

[bovil.livejournal.com]

It's the prerogative of Democrats to admit they're wrong and change their minds. Only consistency fetishists Republicans have to stay the course and never admit they were wrong.

[nolly.livejournal.com]

Obama would have lost my vote when he votd in favor of telecom immunity. The only problem is, McCain's worse, and the last time I voted thise party was the first time Dubya ran...I'm not confident enough in the system to do that again right now. I'm basically just realy, really unhappy with the current slate.