My State Jumps Queue - Vote Creatively, Kids!

Politics in my first post! For shame! Somehow that makes me feel a little bit dirty - and that's not a bad way to start out.

Michigan will be holding its Presidential Primary Election tomorrow, January 15, 2008 - making it only the third in this year's National Primary 'N' Caucus Extravaganza. In a bid for greater relevancy, the eighth most populous state voted last year to bump up its primary election up a couple months.

Naturally, as any five-year-old can tell you, cutting in line just meant Dog-Barks-At-Mitten just pissed a lot of people off. The major candidates of the Democratic Party, with the exception of Hillary Clinton (for reasons I don't know and to be honest am rather afraid to research), self-righteously abstained from the state. The only big player on the Democratic Primary ballot will be H.C. (Also Dennis Kucinich, for what it's worth.)

The Republican Party had no such scruples over a little queue-jumping and toe-stomping & proceeds with (as far as I know) all candidates on ballot.

However, Michigan does do some things right. As it stands, any registered voter can vote in any party's primary. None of this loyal®istered-Dem-only, loyal®istered-Repub-only nonsense. So! A Michigander who was slightly left-leaning, but not a fan of Hillary Clinton, would still has several viable options:

- They could vote for their favorite Republican candidate, in a lesser-of-two-evils vote.

- They could vote for their LEAST favorite major Republican candidate, hoping to give the eventual Democratic nominee a weak opponent. (This is being advocated by Big Liberal Blog Guy as the best policy. It seems like dirty politics as usual to me, but I can see how it's appealing, if that's your game. And as a general principle, if you don't feel you have a good, legitimate option, then the opportunity for general mischief becomes irresisitable.)

- Or our hypothetical voter could use the "Uncommitted" option on the Democratic ballot, indicating a vote of no confidence in Clinton, but unspecified support for some Democratic candidate not on the ballot. (There's been grassroots support for this movement, too.)

As with most political drams, this whole thing is bizarre, depressing, and yet - strangely interesting.