I Voted

What a bizarre feeling, going into the voting booth knowing that my vote might actually matter. Anyway, I spent a lot of time yesterday afternoon and evening thinking about who to vote for, talking to people with opinions and insight that I value, even going so far as to read some campaign literature. In the end, just as I suggested I would, I based my decision primarily on who I thought had the best chance to be elected in November. I factored in which candidate I thought would cause more people to either stay home or defect, which candidate I thought would attract more independent voters, and which candidate I thought would bring more new voters to the polls. To this mix, I added my concerns about how electoral turnout in the fall might impact gubernatorial and Congressional races. Finally, I thought back upon a few of the issues that have been discussed (the gas tax moratorium, for example) and some of the ways that the campaigns have been run.

After considering all of this, I decided to vote for Barack Obama.