Unsurprising Endorsements

The most important thing to do is vote. I've never been swayed by an endorsements one way or the other, at least consciously. And I've never detailedly researched the specifics of all their positions, but I'm an informed voter ... or at least I think I am until I get in the booth and see a bunch of judges and local officials on the ballot. Democracy is a lot of work. It feels good to vote: I early voted in Florida.

NY is growing closer and closer to a 1 party state (especially if the democrats take the senate this year, which is likely). While having a bunch of democrats in power is clearly better than the alternative than having some democrats and some republicans, you can imagine that this could cause some problems. WFP seems to do a good job of endorsing honest, non-machine politicians. Thanks to fusion voting, voting on the WFP line will still count the same as voting for a democrat, but more people voting the WFP line give their endorsements/nominations more power so that they can affect NY politics more (presumably for the better) in the future.

A very interesting phenomenon around the world during this election season is how many developing nations view this election. In their hearts, people want Obama to win - time to shake up America's image, triumph of good over evil, all that power in a less hawkish human being, and all that. But with some thought, editors of many newspapers and many others have suggested that it may actually be better for their economies if McCain wins. From an American perspective, its for all the wrong reasons. Many around the world see a Republican administration as being more friendly to free trade and outsourcing - a policy which is very much against what you might think is best for the American populace. But its true, the last 8 years, while the global economy has been slipping overall, the BRIC for example, (Brazil, Russia, India, China) have actually been doing quite well, thanks to all the business coming in - dont blame them.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Where_McCain_scores_over_Obama/arti…

So while they know the difference between good and bad and in their hearts, everyone out there wants an Obama victory, in their minds, a McCain victory might be just what they need.

How long can the benefits of a Republican administration serve these nations, before businesses realize that those countries have more productive consumers than Americans? It would seem that the benefits of outsourcing would last as long as businesses feel that the consumer at the end of the chain is American. But with the economy going bad, and Americans doing less well than before, there could be a saturation somewhere, before consumers in these countries get more priority than Americans. In which case I guess, there will be a period where the business process (admin, manufacture, IT) and the actual consumers would all be in the same new nation. I'd be very interested in such a study. Seems like a good dissertation topic for an Economics grad student.

The Working Families Party is growing in New York state, and it's already a major factor in Albany County Politics.
I'm not sure of its strength in Schenectady County.

Voting for your candidates that appear on the WFP line can help the WFP in two ways: 1. Sufficient votes (not sure about the total number required) statewide will guarantee the party's right to a ballot line in future elections. 2. The more votes a party gets, the higher its line will appear on future ballots.

I'm a registered Democrat, but whenever possible I've voted for candidates on the WFP line for the last 8 years.