I have a friend who is a political moderate and is at least somewhat committed to voting for McCain. I'm actively trying to convince him to vote for Obama, but I'm more strongly advocating that he simply vote for anyone besides McCain, because I have several strong oppositions to his candidacy.
My question simply is: if you were to recommend that someone vote for a candidate besides the Democratic nominee, who would you encourage that person to vote for?
First of all, I already strongly advocate for Obama to my friends and family. My concern, however, is that I come off as a pro-Obama zealot when the truth of the matter is that I'm at least as much anti-McCain as pro-Obama. I would rather see any third party candidate as president than McCain.
This puts me into an interesting situation when I'm talking about candidates with McCain supporters. Is it sensible to advocate for Bob Barr to them, or for another third party candidate? I find Barr to be much more tolerable than McCain.
What about people who are already never going to vote for Obama, no matter what? Should I advocate the Constitution Party candidate to them, or Bob Barr to them?
Or should I not even consider advocating third party candidates and focus solely on advocating for Obama? Obama is my preferred choice, obviously, but a shouting match with a person who's anti-Obama doesn't help, and if I can convince an anti-Obama supporter to vote for Barr or Baldwin, then that's at least a -1 for McCain.
I spend a lot of time discussing politics with people around me, and I'm largely trying to figure out the best strategy for seeming reasonable when minimizing McCain support while maximizing Obama's chances. What do you suggest?