I'm voting for Bob Barr.We must get a 3rd. party stronger in this country or I think we'll lose this country..Rob D.

Unfortunately having the third party candidates in a two party operating system would be a flippin' disaster of major consequences. Everyone complains about "gridlock" in Washington but if you were to put a Bob Barr Libertarian or other such candidate in that office you would see the mother of all trainwrecks in gridlock. Nothing would get done. NOTHING! The two majority partys would un-divide the aisle in the capitol building, come together and put up a wall you wouldn't believe. You would see a freeze out of the oval office that no one could dream of. The Libertarian are the most unmoving, inflexible of all the third partys and frankly, their ideas, while worth the look in some cases, are a bit lame.

Notwithstanding I am conservative leaning, and notwithstanding that belief of a 3rd party victory is far reaching, their value to the American political landscape is important. This importance would be elevated to critical importance when they are able to attain a level of fairness in the media for having the explanations for their platforms be heard. At that level, the only obstacle then would be the kool aid drinking mentality of the American electorate that in its self righteous prejudice for one of the major parties refuses to open its mind sufficiently long enough to understand another candidate's rationale for his/her's platform. Equally important is education/ignorance of the electorate....(how informed and understanding of the issues is the electorate, which obviously is largely influenced by the aforementioned political prejudice and education/ignorance). I believe it is largely these dynamics that do not speak well of our electorate that doom third parties from the beginning.

In a more perfect society with the aforementioned obstructions largely reduced or removed, I still maintain it is overly optimistic to believe a 3rd party would achieve the victory of a presidency, but not impossible; however, there would be a different victory almost equally important and more easily attainable. The cross pollination of thoughts, ideas, and proposed initiatives ranks high in what makes some businesses--and I would argue some governments-eminently successful. For instance, many years ago when I heard Libertarian presidential candidate Harry Brown speak directly to the issues of the day, every time he opened his mouth explaining his general approach to issues and recommended specific proposed changes to problems, he made enormous sense ! I suspended my dogmatic prejudice just long enough to give the man my personal audience. I applied my education and knowledge of the facts to a critical review of his general approach and specific recommendations, and I was enormously impressed.

Previous third party candidates like Andersen, Perot, Nader rose sufficiently high enough in the attention of the public to capture millions of hearts and minds. Their degree of success should not be measured by win/loss of the presidency but to the degree it affected those millions who ultimately affected our culture and influenced the candidates who did win who became representatives for that altered constituency. Ask yourself how much more of an effect the influence of third parties could alter our representatives if 3rd parties had the money to support their candidacy to the degree of the major parties. I would argue that instead of us having a winner-take-all mentality, that in this scenario, we would be better served by those that lead us who are influenced by a constituency whose ideology and dogma become modified by strong currents that carry the best that third parties can expose us to.

Gary Buckley, Lakewood, Washington 09/21/2008

I'm not voting because there is no candidate that represents my values (except Palin - although McCain does not so I won't vote for McCain)

obama is a muslim terrorist who was born in kenya and is not eligible to be president. He claims to be Christian yet supports everything G-d calls an abomination. Anyone who votes for him will get what they deserve - and I don't want to be around if/when it happens.

This country will get what it deserves - and unfortunately everyone will suffer when it happens.

dumb dumb dumb.

YES YES YES YES I am DEFINITELY VOTING 3rd PARTY! Wake up! Pakistan had more candidates from different parties, yet we're the ones preaching (and killing) for democracy around the world. Wake up to the two party dictatorship people! Stop rubber stamp voting for parties that make a mockery of your easily manipulated minds! I have no choice but be true to my conscience and vote for Barr or Nader. Obama's not change, he's status quo. And contrary to the beliefs of some, he's no savior of mankind. McCain's no maverick, he's a beltway boy. Oh, and he's no savior either. Neither are friends of the constitution, or American sovereignty. "What good fortune for governments that the people do not think."- Adolf Hitler

I will not be voting for a 3rd party for the Presidential Election. Unfortunately this country continues to be divided on too many issues. At this time in History, I have to choose the strongest candidate who has a chance of turning things around and making progress on most of the issues that I agree with. I may never be able to find a candidate or party that I have 100% faith is the right choice. But if I were to find a 3rd party whose fundamental principles I agreed with I would not hesitate to vote for them, provided they could speak to the needs of our country at this time.

Unfortunately the office of the President of the United States is one of the most influential and powerful positions in all of the world. The very notion that 'just anybody' could be president is very appealing to the American Dream ideology. But the truth is that qualifications and experience are important factors when choosing someone for a leadership position of this magnitude.

It's good that 3rd parties such as the Libertarian Party and the Green Party have people who can speak on their behalf, but I have yet to meet one whom I thought I was leadership material. It is one thing to lead a lecture to those of us who are under educated on issues. It is a whole other thing to work with other experienced leaders throughout our country and the world, and make this a better time to live for all of us.

If such a person would come from a 3rd party, I see no reason why we, the people, would even consider voting the first 2 parties.

LEDOG3, a government that did NOTHING? I Like how the Democratic party has done so many great things in the last two years, like getting us out of Iraq, or balancing a budget. Or the Republicans who do so much, like re-ignite a cold war with Russia, bail out(reward) bad businesses, urinate on civil liberties and screw the taxpayer with repetitive pleasure. Yeah, we better not put an outsider in the oval office. LEDOG3 please.

I certainly WONT vote for Terry Bergeson--she is the main supporter of the disasterous WASL.

I'll be voting 3rd party unless McCain or Obama adresses four basic things the major 3rd parties have agreed on:

In Short

1: All soldiers out of Iraq, and withdraw of military presence around the world.

2. Restore privacy and civil liberties, repeal the patriot act, FISA, and the military commissions act.

3. No increase in the national debt

4. Do away with the Fedceral Reserve as it is today and end corporate bailouts.

I don't know which 3rd party candidate I'll be voting for as I haven't done all my homework yet, but Barr is definitely in the running along with Nader and McKinney.

I will vote for McCain / Palin.
Not 3rd party.
We will see who wins in November if America votes for morals and values and what America really stands for or not.

Third Party all the way from here forward. Write in Ron Paul or Bob Barr. These folks in congress are about to give our future away to crooks that stole from the world. Justice... is for them to fail, and go to jail. We are paying cash for trash. Obama nor McCain have any real solutions and both undermine our constitutional freedom. They both will expand our global military presence. As long as each one of us believes the lie that we have to vote for the lessor evil, we are doomed. The lessor evil is still evil.

The ignorance of the American people will be our down fall. You make fun of people for going to church wasting a vote, not going with the main stream even if they believe inside its wrong, for a majority of Americans its all about image. While our daughters litter the internet with porn. To few Americans have the guts to stand up and fight for what they know is right and for that we are a snow ball headed for Hell. A vote for Bob Barr is not wasted its where you start. If you didn't get up and put your pants on could you go to work? Wake up people!

yep, voting 3rd party.

I'll vote for ANYONE that's ready to roll=up their sleeves and solve some of our states issues without further lip service. Locke promised to fix the roads and didn't so then lost to Queen Gregoire on her promises to fix it. 4 years ago she promised that it was in motion but needed more time for the people to see it. * years later and now all those road funds are being siphoned off for other things.... see ya Gregoire! We're ready for a problem solver regardless of party. Not another 4 years of lip service and self serving DEMO-RATS.

'Honesty and Accountability' Where is it? I'm sick and tired of the Elephants and Donkeys!
I believe 'all the people' would like to start back at the basics. We give our money to these people to pay our bills; police, soc. sec., fire etc. And they use this money as if it was their own! Isn't there something we can do about this? I send emails and they tell me how happy they are I took the time to do it, but really they're just patting my head and telling me they will take care of it, NOT.
I know that lying is the first requirement of being a politician, can we overturn that though?
I don't want to vote for any of them at any level but I have too, too many lives were ruined and lost so that I could.

I will vote for 3rd party but just not this year. We need to cleanse out any republican due to the mess left by them.
However, I simply don't get why people correlate morals and values with the republican party. I'd like to see if someone can help me understand when they think of morality and values why they equate that with republican party. For me they simply shattered any remote idealism of morals and values in the Christian sense or even humane sense.
Is lying to go to war against Iraq where people are needlesslly dying because of a lie moral? Is corporate greed/corruption supported by republican deregulation moral or just in values? It can't be sexual infidelity, since it happens from members of both parties. Is it abortion? Just so you know, this stance won't change the law regardless of who's president. It struck me as even more odd that evangelical right wing conservatives loves Palin since her daughter became pregnant before marriage. What type of morals and values are they truly representing here? The evangelical right wing showed their true color when they jumped on the McBush train. They are more a political movement than one for Christians.
Just so you know, I'm a strong Christian but I don't see republicans really showing any Christ like values/morals. Republicans are like wolf in sheep's clothing. They say one thing about morality/values but their actions contradict this louder than words.

Pete,
Your ignorance is beyond ludicrous and diplorable.

Obama was NOT born in Kenya...he was born in Hawaii in 1961 which makes him a US citizen and more than qualified to run for President. His father, (who did not raise him and was not part of most of his life ) was born in Kenya.

Obviously you don't read much or do any research
for yourself or you would have known that. It is painfully obvious what your problem with Obama is.
And it has NOTHING to do with his religious beliefs.

Your obvious hatred is no more Christian than your assumptions and outright falsehoods towards Obama. You need to practice what you preach.

As for a third party candidate, I am getting closer to voting libertarian than either Dem or Rep...especially after the debate where BOTH candidates did everything BUT answer questions directly. I have never seen so much dancing in my life. What a joke they both made out of it.

WE NEED third parties. This is AMERICA! Land of the free! Yet many of us (myself included)have left the democratic process up to others- so we have no else to blame but ourselves for the state our country is in. But as in the words of Dr Phil- once you know better, you do better. So, where does that leave us? The third parties are never going to get any fuel behind them as long as there are no rules. We need to end "FUND RAISING" (I can think of several places those many millions of dollars could go). All parties should be given an alotted amount for "campaigning"- but only for stating what their stand is on the important issues. NO MUD SLINGING! Each party should be given (yes i said given) the same amount of tv time. And we need to start with our children. It's really sad that we don't involve our children in the process. I asked my teenage son earlier if they are even discussing the election at school. He said No. THAT IS RIDICULOUS! I know some school districts are really wonderful about getting the students involved. But many of them don't include discussions about third parties.

yes it is time to get rid of democrats and republicans. time for third parties. it isn't working, people! wake up before it's too late...maybe it already is to late. the media has shoved obama down our throats so much i could puke. its not about skin-color, it's about issues! DUH

well it must be time for third parties cuz with democrats and republicans it isn't working! each inherits the past ones problems and nothing will ever get better til we get someone in there who is decent and honest. the media should be unbiased and let us decide for ourselves. ron paul or baldwin look good to me

yes it is time to get rid of democrats and republicans. time for third parties. it isn't working, people! wake up before it's too late...maybe it already is to late. the media has shoved obama down our throats so much i could puke. its not about skin-color, it's about issues! DUH

You bet I am voting for a 3rd party!

Vote for real change - against foreign intervention, for personal liberty, less government interference in local/personal issues, greater personal responsibility, lower taxes, fiscal responsibility and a balanced budget.

I am voting libertarian!