In my 40+ years of voting, I can't remember feeling like this!

I'm sitting here trying to remember when I thought an election was as important as this one and when I thought it was absolutely essential to elect a certain candidate.

I was too young to vote for JFK but he and my father were close friends and I remember the elation in my household when he won.

Fast forward many, many years. There were candidates I supported because they would beat some other candidate, but I can't remember a time when I thought that the country might not survive without a certain candidate winning. I may not be making a lot of sense here, but it is one thing to favor one candidate over another and quite another to believe that there is only one candidate who can turn things around at a time when, if we don't, we are really screwed.

In the face of Watergate, Vietnam and many other challenges, this election tops them all and, I have concluded, is the most important election in my lifetime. For those of you who are my age (62), think about this: The next President may be in office until you are 70. Many people die around that age. The next President after that may be in office until you are 78...I will be lucky to live that long. In short, the luxury of flipping off a vote because there will always be another election is becomming less of an option and I am determined to make the right decision this time around because there won't be many more opportunities to use the "white out."

My choice is pretty clear, you folks my age...make sure you think very, very carefully before you pull the level. It may be your last vote and your very last chance to make a real difference.

The polarization against the opposite candidates has gotten so high that if our chosen "right" candidate loses, we pretty much won't care about the outcome.

If there were ever a recipe for a McCain victory, this is it.

The worse part of it is we probably have another month or two of this shit.

... Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama had the testicular fortitude, to use the NC Guv's expression, to make the case for liberalism. Why are they such cowards?

At any rate, if they insist on running cowardly campaigns, I'll still back them because if our country becomes any more right wing, we are going to get ourselves in a lot more trouble than we're already in.

Anytime, in my book, that a presidential election comes around, I get very anxious and know
that it is crucial that the Democrats take the White House and the majority in both houses.

Every damned election, I get my hopes up.... only to be dashed, except for 1992 and 1996...

This election is just as crucial as the election in 1972 was.... during Vietnam.

A war action makes the difference.... puts much more weight on it.

:kick: & Recommended

I remember thinking how wonderful it was when we won. Jack, Jackie, Caroline and the new baby John. I had a baby named John and I was thrilled with the wonderful new administration, after the long gray era of Eisenhower.

Raven, you say your dad was close to JFK. Was he in JFK's administration?

If we make the wrong choice, there may be no way for the country to ever recover from the dead-end path Bush has started us down.

:kick:

I've never seen the level of animosity I see in this primary season. It's sickening. I've been pissed off at Repubs before, but never like this at fellow (or should I say "so-called") Democrats.

Bake

and well thought out. I feel this is an incredibly important election also, I generally don't get involved in the primary--and in Ohio is usually settled before I vote. But this year is different, in a lot of ways. I plan on volunteering more in the GE, I canvassed for moveon in 04--I'd like to devote more to it this time around.