Pull the lever!

Many of us are a little tense this Election Eve, awaiting the Big Day tomorrow. So I decided to break for a few minutes from my GOTV work, and share this comment (misspellings and all) from Brainwrap on the DailyKos:

My family asks me why I tend to vote straight-ticket Dem, even in races where I don't have a clue who either of the candidates are.

My response is simple:

If it's a race where I have specific knowledge that that the Democratic candidate is a scumbag, no, I won't vote for him. But neither will I vote for the Republican.

Otherwise, my reasoning is simple: I play the odds.

The odds are that any given Democratic candidate has about a 20% chance of being some form of scumbag.

The odds are that any given Democratic candidate has about a 30% chance of being a Blue Dog.

HOWEVER, the odds are also--these days--that any given Republican candidate has about an 90% chance of being a scumbag, and a 95% chance of towing the party line on every issue of significance.

Therefore, in the absence of any additional information about either candidate, the choice is simple:

--One candidate has an 80% chance of being a decent person and a 70% chance of being on the right side of most issues.

--The other candidate only has a 10% chance of being a decent person an only a 5% chance of being on the right side of most issues.

Not a difficult choice at all.

Amusing, yet sane and refreshingly honest. Thanks, Brainwrap!