"play into decision-making" != determine the decision.
i look closely at position statements and voting behaviour of candidates, and overall those are what determines who i vote for.
but how i feel about the person on a gut level does enter the equation. it doesn't drive the decision, but it affects it. and the gut level isn't even all emotional; what i call "intuition" seems more of an aggregate feeling about small incident data collection; hard to enumerate and explain, but not grabbed from thin air either.
when bill clinton got elected, there was something about him that felt shifty to me, lawyer-speaky, as if he talked out of one side of his mouth. i would have voted for him had i been eligible, but i didn't think he had as much integrity as i want in a country's leader. i thought he would probably be a good president, but i didn't trust him to keep all his promises, rather i expected him to weasel when pushed to the wall. i formed those impressions from watching him closely during the campaign and reading a lot about his prior actions.
and what happened seems to support that gut reaction. he was a good president, but he weaseled like there was no tomorrow, and he broke promises when it was inconvenient to keep them. i don't think he had the courage of his convictions; he was a weak man in many ways.
i think HRC is stronger than he, but she's got the weaseling down pat as well, and the manipulative tactics. consequently her campaign promises count a little less for me.
i weigh their positions slightly differently from you, except for the third and last one. i am unforgiving about the iraq war, i think the truth was available at the time to anyone who wanted it. but even more importantly i am 99% convinced clinton is unelectable in today's US of A. obama is black, yes, but he's not a scary black to white america, he's black like colin powell is black. he is electable (while somebody like jesse jackson isn't), though he'll have it harder than a white man in his position. i don't know that any woman could make it, except a quite conservative one maybe. but not HRC. we won't need new scandals about her; she carries so much baggage that it'll suffice, considering her opponent will be mccain (who has a better image than he deserves). she's hated by too many people. if even your own party can't get whole-heartedly behind you, you have no chance in a country in which the population is close to 50/50 split before taking their own gut level into account.
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branchandroot
rational vs emotional?
Date: 2008-02-08 08:34 pm (UTC)i look closely at position statements and voting behaviour of candidates, and overall those are what determines who i vote for.
but how i feel about the person on a gut level does enter the equation. it doesn't drive the decision, but it affects it. and the gut level isn't even all emotional; what i call "intuition" seems more of an aggregate feeling about small incident data collection; hard to enumerate and explain, but not grabbed from thin air either.
when bill clinton got elected, there was something about him that felt shifty to me, lawyer-speaky, as if he talked out of one side of his mouth. i would have voted for him had i been eligible, but i didn't think he had as much integrity as i want in a country's leader. i thought he would probably be a good president, but i didn't trust him to keep all his promises, rather i expected him to weasel when pushed to the wall. i formed those impressions from watching him closely during the campaign and reading a lot about his prior actions.
and what happened seems to support that gut reaction. he was a good president, but he weaseled like there was no tomorrow, and he broke promises when it was inconvenient to keep them. i don't think he had the courage of his convictions; he was a weak man in many ways.
i think HRC is stronger than he, but she's got the weaseling down pat as well, and the manipulative tactics. consequently her campaign promises count a little less for me.
i weigh their positions slightly differently from you, except for the third and last one. i am unforgiving about the iraq war, i think the truth was available at the time to anyone who wanted it. but even more importantly i am 99% convinced clinton is unelectable in today's US of A. obama is black, yes, but he's not a scary black to white america, he's black like colin powell is black. he is electable (while somebody like jesse jackson isn't), though he'll have it harder than a white man in his position. i don't know that any woman could make it, except a quite conservative one maybe. but not HRC. we won't need new scandals about her; she carries so much baggage that it'll suffice, considering her opponent will be mccain (who has a better image than he deserves). she's hated by too many people. if even your own party can't get whole-heartedly behind you, you have no chance in a country in which the population is close to 50/50 split before taking their own gut level into account.