Voters Without A Candidate

"If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice."

    - Neil Peart, Canadian born rock star

Andrew Sullivan on his weblog, The Daily Dish, frequently posts interesting emails from his readers . This one, from a gentleman in Tennessee, makes the case for Americans who don't find either of this election's presidential candidates all that appealing:

"You would, I think, be amazed at how many people in Middle America...are politically frustrated in much the same way you are. It's not the ideologues--they've picked their sides...It's the ones in the middle, people who might describe themselves as center-left or center right..."

He goes on to list some of the things these voters want in a candidate:

1. A president for whom the War on Terror is by far the top priority and who will execute it with cold efficiency and competence.

2. A president who doesn't kowtow to every...interest group that beats down his door.

3. They want a president who has...opinions that are clear, forthright and his own. They don't like Kerry because he...has no principled opinions, and they don't like Bush because listening to him talk...is pretty excruciating.

There's quite a bit more, and it has me wondering how many people like this fellow are out there, not quite sure what they're going to do come November? Quite a few, I would imagine, for I've heard folks who live in my neighborhood express some of the same concerns. I must admit that I've expressed some of them myself. One good friend even suggested that we need a new political party. He wasn't kidding.

I'm not "ready and willing to stay at home," as this gent suggests, but I do wish that either Bush or Kerry were more aligned with my overall political philosophy. It would make me more comfortable casting my vote for one of them.

I'm one of those Americans for whom the War on Terrorism is a top priority. I believe if we don't get that problem solved, the other problems we think we have won't matter all that much. For that reason, I lean toward Bush. But I also have strong feelings about social issues that I feel would be better dealt with by Kerry. I suppose you could say that I'm conflicted about both of these men, and that seems to be the frustration felt by the people this Tennessean writes about.

Despite that, come November I'll be casting my vote for the man whose stance most nearly matches my views. I hope everyone else will too.