I think Kerry was treated unfairly during the 2004 election. People came out on both sides of the aisle in defense of his service; McCain was one of them. But I also think he was unfairly critical of his fellow Vietnam vets.

The only different between McCain and Obama is time. McCain has had time to make decisions, some of them tough ones. Obama has not. I can't stress this enough and it boggles my mind that people continue to ignore this like it's no big deal. Obama was only a senator for three years, and he spent nearly two thirds of that time campaigning to be president. During his time on the national stage, he never had to make any tough decisions. He took office in 2005, well after 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq. He never had to vote on deposing Saddam Hussein or the Department of Homeland security or any bill with any substance to it. McCain has had to vote on some tough issues in his storied political career, and I fully reject the notion that he is in any way a sell out. Politics is a intricate game, one with a lot of give and get, and sometimes you have to make concessions to get what you want. Any long-serving politician will inevitably be forced to vote for or otherwise support something they don't believe in, in exchange for support on some other issue. Cynics refer to this as the "do anything, say anything politics as usual that keeps the same idiots in Washington year after year", but that is not correct. The fact is that we keep electing these same "idiots" to the Hill every year because we like that they're willing to make bipartisan choices and sometimes work against their own personal ideals to do what's best for the country. And McCain was always willing to work both sides of the aisle.

On top of that, as a politician, it is not your job to serve your own personal beliefs. It is your job to serve your constituents. If you are for stem cell research but your constituents are overwhemingly against it, it is your job to vote against it. You are not contractually bound to do so, but your constituents may not forgive you when the next election comes around. Many Democrats voted for the invasion of Iraq for this very reason. Then when public sentiment turned against the war, they were making excuses.

And King, yes, the two party system is quite flawed. There is no real middle ground, and it sucks. I am economically conservative and socially moderate, and each side has things that I don't like.

If I vote for Republican, I'm voting for gay marriage bans.
If I vote Democrat, I'm voting for state-funded abortions.

This election cycle, the most important issue to me was government spending. The Bush administration spent way too much money, and I want someone who's going to reign it in. So, we had both candidates promising to leave Iraq when it was reasonable to do so, there's some decreased spending right there. But then we had Obama promising to create expensive new social programs. NO! THAT'S MORE SPENDING! BAD! So I voted for McCain. Somehow I'll find a way to sleep at night if there are unwed gays running around out there. I won't be able to sleep, however, if our national debt keeps getting bigger. And after winning the election, Obama starting saying he wants to spend nearly a trillion dollars on tax rebates and "job creation". Well, there's only two ways that the government can create jobs. One way is give tax breaks to businesses, giving them extra capital to higher more workers. The other way is to create government jobs. Guess which method Democrats use? Alphabet soup, anyone?

Like her or not, there are people out there who love Palin. There are people who want her to run in 2012. I sincerely hope she doesn't, but support is there for her.