Monday, November 5, 2012

Just who do you think you are?

John Hawkins at Right Wing News occasionally sends out email polls to a group of conservative bloggers, and his latest one was a simple two questions about the presidential race. We were asked (1) who do we thought would win the election, and (2) for whom we were voting. 

I didn't think much of it when I sent in my response (Romney for both questions, duh), but when John emailed out the results last night, I saw red.

Fifty-eight of the bloggers thought Romney will win, and eight said they believed Obama will win. 

OK, fine. The polls are all over the place in this race, and while there have been continuous questions about the validity of their methodology (see here and here, for starters), it's impossible to completely predict all factors affecting turnout tomorrow, so I'll forgive anyone for not sharing my optimism about a Romney victory.

What bothered me was the response to the second question:
2) Whom are you voting for? 
Mitt Romney 92.6% (63 votes)
Gary Johnson 2.9% (2 votes)
I’m not voting 2.9% (2 votes)
Won’t say 1.5% (1 votes)
So who are these four who are not voting for Romney? What could possibly be their justification?


Any Gary Johnson supporters out there can spare me the nonsense about how horrible the two party system is. Anyone who tries to argue that there's "no real difference between Romney and Obama" lacks both intelligence and credibility. I've got three words for you, for starters: Supreme. Court. Nominees.

A vote for anyone other than Mitt Romney
is a vote to reelect Barack Obama. Period.

What's worse, however, is the two respondents who said they were not voting.

What amazing arrogance is this, to think anyone should read your blog, to care what you think about politics, and you won't even take the trouble to cast a ballot yourself? At least the Gary Johnson supporters have principles (misguided ones, but principles nonetheless) for which they are willing to take action.

I don't know which two bloggers said they are not voting, and I am not going to ask John to violate his promise to keep responses anonymous (and if you are a decent person, you won't either). Maybe they just accidentally hit the wrong button.

But maybe there really are two bloggers out there who aren't voting. Shame on you. I really hope you aren't anyone I know.


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