Ditto what van lingle just said.

You know, the problem here is cognitive dissonance. Regardless of who the Democratic nominee is, the people who vote for that nominee either rationalize their votes as "lesser of two evils" (and I find them to be far more honest). But as the election gets closer, they become convinced of the great goodness of the candidate. We have certainly seen this phenomenon here, and that is what I'm talking about. People actually are going against their own moral compasses to support candidates they shouldn't be supporting, if they are to be true to their own values, and acting with integrity.

The only thing I can, in good conscience, do is vote for Nader (a protest vote), or not participate in the corrupt system. I'm not sure which of the two it will be, but it will be one or the other.

The disconnect I'm having in 2008 is no different than the one I had in 2004, except this year even more people I never would have expected to go the cognitive dissonance route, have merrily taken off down that very path. Makes me question most everyone's judgment that I thought was sound for the better part of the last 2 decades--like Barbara Ehrenrich.

Obama's progressive Illinois supporters thought they were getting a far more liberal and progressive senator when they worked to elect him. What happened once he landed in the Senate?

Weeeeellll...just as one example. Obama has boasted to campaign crowds that he had passed a law to increase regulation of nuclear power plants. Specifically this was a response to the Exelon Corp. which had failed to inform the public about radioactive leaks at one of its plants. Senator Obama scolded both Exelon and federal regulators. He presented a bill to force nuclear power companies to disclose even small leaks. On the stump, Obama stated that this was "the only nuclear legislation that I've passed. I did it just last year (New York Times, 2/3/08, p. A1)."

However, this was a lie. Obama had introduced such a bill, but it was repeatedly weakened until it no longer imposed any demands on the nuclear power industry…and then it was dropped. Obama never got any law regulating the nuclear power industry passed. Why did he cave in? The New York Times reports that Exelon was "one of Mr. Obama's largest sources of campaign money (same, p. A17)." Since 2003, Obama has gotten more than $227,000 from officials and employees of Exelon. Two of the top executives are among his biggest donors. Obama's chief political strategist has been an advisor to Exelon.