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"Voting write-in or not voting at all is a way to send a message to the president that we're angry."

You naively believe that the exact nature of your anger is communicated and understood as such. It is not. The fringes of "conservativism", from the point of view of the media and most political leaders of both parties do not merit discussion, and the nuance of why different conservatives may be "angry" is either not acknowledged, misunderstood or ignored.

The message you speak of might be the message intended to be sent, but with the liberal hold on the LameStreamMedia that is not, never has been, and never will be the message recieved.

Just for example: They will insure that a poll that says "56% of eligible voters disagree with the President on Iraq" will be sold as "56% of the eligible voters want us to abandon Iraq, as quickly as possible". The question: "Do you think our political leaders are not allowing our military to act strongly enough against the insurgents in Iraq", is not a question that will get asked.

You can redo that equation on any issue of your choice, for which the left wants to create an "opposition" and tie that opposition to their specific position, and you can be sure that that is how the LameStreamMedia will translate your protest vote - as just another vote confirming the postion of the left.

They will not allow the public to discern any nuance in the poll, or in their selling of it, once the poll question is text-proofed to hide all the ambiguity in the possible answers. They do the same thing with election results.

I have listened to the media people and the selective talking heads they scheduled for today, and as far as they are concerned your nuanced position is either non-existent or inconsequential in the American body politic.

And, in the reality of politics, they are correct. There is no form of success in defeat and when it is those you are most closely aligned with, most of the time, to which you have chosen to deliver your protest vote, you did only one thing; you reduced the number of potential allies who might agree with you some of the time and increased the number of opponents who rarely ever agree with you. That is self-defeating.

There is one place for that vote, and that is in primary elections, when you can directly speak, and directly protest, concerning the possible candidates that may take your postions from time to time.

In general electionss, your protest vote is universally used as a vote in favor of the other party, no matter what your intentions are.