Though an Obama supporter, I've always been willing to support Hillary. I've spent the last 20 years of my life as a consultant to federal agencies, helping them use information technology. I've done this through Bush 1, Bill, and Bush 2. Let me tell you, it matters in a zillion ways who the President is. Far more ways than Supreme Court nominations. Far more than Commander-in-Chief and our face to the world.
I've been waiting for Republicans to get sent packing, because I am tired of watching them mess things up.
Voters have been lulled into thinking it didn't matter that much somehow. Some Hillary supporters say the same thing. Well, if you've been there and worked with the top levels of federal agencies, you would not be thinking that at all.
While most executive agency employees are permanent civil servants, there is a large top layer of political appointees. Each agency is run by a cadre of people appointed by the President. These are people who agree with him and implement his policies. They come and go. When Obama comes, they will go!
In Bush's case, this has meant that we have anti-scientific, faith-based, free market, no regulations, shrink government folks. These are often people who don't "believe" in the mission of the agency they are running. They do just about as good a job with that mission as you would expect. Not all of them are like this, but there is a critical mass of them willing to throw a monkey wrench in the works. Remember Brownie. He's just one of them.
The Congress passes laws and budgets, but the executive branch is SUPPOSED to implement them. However, there is not really much to stop them from NOT. The only real check on these people is the career civil servants, who do believe in their mission and carry it out anyway. Their passive resistive behavior is sometimes all that stands in the way of some really bad shit.
So, if you believe things are really screwed up, and I do, then you need an executive branch that will implement what the legislature comes up with to fix the problems. It is key.
So, if you know someone who thinks that a protest vote for McCain is better than a vote for Barack Obama, tell them what I said. Your tax dollars down the drain. Crappy government. Problems not solved. The Congress cannot do this alone. No way.