The Nigh Seen Creeder

Here's a picture I took this morning, featuring two recently-planted political signs in a neighbor's yard (yeah, my neighbor just put out the "Vote August 7" sign):

John McCain is a Republican. Bob Tuke is a Democrat. No, wait ... Tuke is a Democrat hack who would never not do as he was instructed by Harry Reid and/or the liberal denizens at the Democratic National Committee. A Senator Tuke would each and every day stand opposed to a President McCain's policies. I can't for the life of me see how someone can rationalize that it's a good thing to vote for political candidates who would constantly pursue competing interests?

Eight years ago, Pennsylvania voters re-elected conservative Rick Santorum to the U.S. Senate and, by an even greater margin, voted for liberal Al Gore for President. Thus, a substantial number of folks voted for both Santorum and Gore. Not long after the election, I participated in a panel discussion during which I called Santorum-Gore voters "not politically astute" and advanced the "constantly pursue competing interests" argument. A fellow panelist took issue with my comment ... and later on he complained about "gridlock" in politics!

There ain't nothing that gets my goat quite like ticket-splitting. Whenever I hear someone say, "I don't vote for the party, I vote for the person," I just want to grab 'em up by the shirt and give 'em a dozen vigorous shakes. Why? Because most of the folks who say they vote "person" over "party" are effectively admitting that they vote for the candidate who has the fanciest political ads or the prettiest on-the-stump tongue.

President John McCain and Senator Bob Tuke -- yeah, that makes a whole lot of damn sense. Again, ticket-splitting is for suckers.