Who won tonights Vice-Presidential Debate?

That debate was much better than I was expected it to be. It was a real debate and some some parallel interview like the ones sponsored by the CPD that excluded candidates not of the democratic and republican parties. I think all candidates gave a great performance. Gonzalez made great points and cited reports, statistics and history to give his claims substance. Castle also made good points and proved to be both principled and intelligent, however he failed to really make his message resonate. Root for the most part was just loud and seemingly ignorant on a number of issues. As such I voted that Matt Gonzalez won this debate.

As a left-libertarian, I appreciate the fact that your radio program tries to be fair to my side. I do find it annoying the way you all feel compelled to preface your comments with "I don't agree with the left, but...." However I do understand that your program is heavily biased to right-libertarianism, so I won't dwell on it.

What I want to do is ask you -- plead with you -- to please show yourselves to be genuine unity-seekers by doing your part to end the "socialism-as-slur" phenomenon. As a socialist, I can tell you that virtually nobody understands what the word actually means. This is obviously not the place to delve into it, but what most people think of when they hear "socialism" is actually Stalinism: a top-down planned economy that devolved into state-capitalism -- which is more akin to fascism (corporatism) than the bottom-up, grassroots, anti-authoritarian socialism I endorse. So please, try to remember that there are *actual socialists* out here, and when you use our political ideology as a barb, you offend us.

I arrived at my position after years of introspection and self-education. In fact, my political journey took me from conservatism, to right-libertarianism, to left-libertarianism (libertarian socialism, although not *necessarily* anarchism). So I'm quite up to snuff on your side, having once pitched my tent right there alongside you.

This election has been unconscionable, the way McCain has slurred Obama as a socialist -- I assure you, Obama is a right-winger from where this socialist sits. "Left of Republican" does not equal "left of center," and Obama is certainly not the latter. Remember: in the US, our spectrum is defined by our two main parties; but we all know that the spectrum extends much farther in both directions. It is insincere, disingenuous, and downright manipulative to pretend otherwise simply because it makes for good rhetorical ammunition.

In case the above is misconstrued as a defense of Obama, I should add that I'll be voting for McKinney. I'm not a particularly enthusiastic environmentalist (I'm not averse to it, I'm just not as educated on it as I am economic and civil liberties issues), but the Green Party most closely matches my views.

I'm as opposed to Obama as McCain; no difference from my perspective.

One more thing (hehe), it may please you to know that I voted for Ron Paul. When I first registered, right out of high school, I registered Republican. When I became a right-libertarian, I stayed GOP because they were generally the lesser-evil for right-libertarians (I thought it made more sense to move the GOP from within rather than join the LP). After I moved left, I decided to stay GOP and vote for the lesser-evil in their primaries, just in case they won. (And with the vicious voter-purging proclivities of the GOP, I feel "safe" if I stay registered as one.) So yes, Ron Paul was far and away the least frightening Republican this season, and I enjoyed his candidacy and was happy to do my part to nudge the not-so-grand-old-party in a better direction.