I don't know about you, but when I talk to people about the presidential election and the candidates they prefer, I hear a lot of things like "I don't like him/her" -- and when I probe, I learn that "like" and "dislike" often have very little to do with where candidates stand on the issues.
It's sad commentary, but the disengaged among us -- those who vote on sound bites and headlines -- are turning a vital election into a personality contest.
Today, I posted an interactive poll at my blog containing 50 issues that a person might base their candidate preference on. It's too many choices to include as a poll here at Kos, but I thought I'd list them for you and get your thoughts in the comments.
In alphabetical order...
Abortion/reproductive rights
American leadership
Animal Advocacy
Budget and Spending
Capital Punishment
Charitable giving
Children’s issues
Civil Rights (U.S. and Global)
Constitutional Issues
Crime
Debt/Deficit
Defense/Military Preparedness
Disaster Preparedness
Economy
Education
Election Reform
Energy Independence
Environment
Ethics and morality
Farming and agriculture
Food safety
Foreign Policy
Free/fair trade
Gas prices
Gay/lesbian Issues
Global Warming
Government Corruption
Gun Laws
Health Care
Immigration
Interest rates and homeownership
Investments (personal)
Iraq War
Jobs
Lobbying Reform
Minimum Wage
Nuclear Proliferation
Poverty/Homelessness
Prescription/drug costs
Racial/Ethnic/Minority Issues
Religious issues
Senior citizens’ issues/retirement
Separation of Church & State
Social Security
Stem Cell Research
Taxes
Terrorism
Union rights
Veteran’s Affairs
Women’s issues
Until I started creating the list, I wasn't even personally conscious of the non-Iraq issues. But there are a ton.
Sorry I didn't include "pie."
Comment discussion starter: which 1 or 3 or 5 or 10 of these are most important to you in this election? I'll share mine below.
Update: Added issues, from the comments...
New Orleans recovery
Infrastructure
Electability
Darfur