John McCain voted twice to approve a bailout package for Wall Street - at the expense of the taxpayers that he purports to look out for.  How badly we're probably going to be screwed by this has already been well hashed out.  (Incidentally, Vern Ehlers has also lost my vote - and my support - because of this . . . not that I expect him to care.)  A recession is a normal part of the business cycle, usually occurring about once every six years.  (It's nature's way, if you will, of restoring discipline to a segment of the market that's gotten out of hand.)  History teaches that government intervention to stave off a recession merely makes it worse in the long run.  In other words everyone, keep the Vaseline handy.

Early withdrawal doesn't do much more than make a big mess; if you really want to produce anything, then you have to stay in and finish off the job.  (I have some experience on this.)  The McCain campaignus interruptus has made it tougher to win local elections that we really do need to fall into the red column (including Hoogendyk v. Levin).  In my mind, this recalls one of the harsh lessons of Vietnam.  The U.S. was doing a really decent job there, and could have won if Congress hadn't decided that they weren't interested in funding anything better than a second-place finish.  Whether he's aware of it or not, John has just run the white flag up MIGOP's mast.

While John McCain was still competing in Michigan, he sucked up quite a bit of voters' money (mine included) for his campaign efforts.  Um . . . where's our ROI?  More personally, on the weekend of 30 August I spent a good deal of my hard-earned money at the John McCain Store, and as of yesterday (03 October) my paid-for merchandise was still sitting on their "to ship" shelves - missing only the "Students for McCain" t-shirts for my sons.  What chapped my butt was that they had received those shirts two days prior . . . and had diverted them to more recent orders . . . in states that weren't Michigan.  (Apparently, the fact that my order was paid for and had been sitting there partially filled for three weeks didn't seem to matter.)  Yeah, I cancelled my order and demanded my money back.

According to 270 To Win, right now John McCain has only 10 possible winning combinations to close a 107 electoral vote gap - and must win both Florida and Ohio (something that he right now has only a 1 percent chance of doing).  Barack Obama, on the other hand, has a 99 percent chance of closing a 20 electoral vote gap - and can do so by merely winning either Florida or Ohio (without winning a single other up-for-grabs state).  As recently as last weekend (28 September), Michigan (as well as Wisconsin and Pennsylvania) were in the up-for-grabs column.  Now all are in the Obama column, with varying degrees of likelihood, but none solidly or strongly.  Now I'm not going to pretend that I know how to run a campaign better than the "experts," but Sarah Palin has it right; these states shouldn't just be left hanging.  (Different polling aggregation sites will, of course, produce different specific projections.)

I have no beef busting my butt to get some Republicans elected locally.  I will gladly donate some of my time to various state representatives, Cliff Young, and Jack Hoogendyk.  I will absolutely work my tail off to shove as many local elections as possible into the GOP column.  If that tips Michigan POTUS red, then fine.  But any Michigan Congressman who voted for the bailout can kiss my butt.  At this point, it's essentially the same answer for John McCain.  He doesn't want my vote, so I agree with Jason that a trial separation is in order . . . and right now I'm inclined to make it a permanent one.  I happen to have a conscience-approved alternative.

No third-party candidate has won electoral votes since George Wallace (American Independent) claimed 46 of them in 1968 (although third-party presence was pretty common from 1789 through about 1860.  (Teddy Roosevelt actually finished 2nd in 1912 as a third-party candidate.)  I'm thinking that if the Libertarian Party is nimble enough to take advantage of this, then there is a really good chance that Michigan and its 17 electoral votes could show up as gold (or whatever color the MSM has reserved for the Libertarians) on the November 5th Electoral College map.

At least that's how I plan on voting.

John McCain has made it clear by his behavior that my vote doesn't matter to him.  The pinko commie Socialist known as Barack Obama is not worthy of my vote.  Therefore, I will vote with my party on this one . . . Bob Barr for President.