[DivaDelMar]

EXACTLY! If the country is going to go down the tubes, I want it to be under Democratic “leadership.” And make no mistake, the country is heading down the tubes.

[tomnbeverly]

You missed the last seven years of BDS? Everything is Bush fault now and 5 years from now too... don’t you get it?

[andy58-in-nh]

There is no good reason for this country to "go down the tubes". We are still mostly free, have a creative and dynamic economy, and the world's greatest military force. Do we have problems? Hell, yes. Some of them are quite serious. For example, if we do not soon find a way to rein in Federal spending and regulation, we will lose our competitive edge and sink into the same economic swamp that is today's European Union. If we don't soon close our borders and deport those here illegally, we will lose our national character, promote crime, and risk economic collapse.

I have some reason to believe that John McCain will successfully address those problems - some, that is: but not much. By contrast, I have NO reason to believe that any Democrat will do anything other than make them much, much worse.

What to do? Like most conservatives, I have very serious reservations about McCain, including his character and stability, as well as his policy positions. But the Democrat alternative (whether named Hillary or Barack) would be absolutely disastrous. I do not believe that is an exaggeration, either. Imagine President H.R. Clinton with a Democrat Congress. Socialized health care. Withdrawal and defeat in Iraq. Massive spending and tax increases. Open borders with even less enforcement than at present. Leftist Supreme Court nominations. More abortion, more gun control laws, more crime. Islamic radicals emboldened around the world.

Sorry, but I lived through the 1970s once, and we as a nation were lucky to make it out of that decade intact. The stakes are much higher now. So, if the Stupid Party sees fit to proclaim John McCain its standard bearer this year, I'm going to vote for him, unenthusiastically to be sure, and then go home and have a good stiff drink or three afterwards and pray for our nation's future.

[Sender]

If the country is going to go down the tubes, I want it to be under Democratic “leadership.” And make no mistake, the country is heading down the tubes.

That sounds pretty fatalistic. We are doomed anyway, so let's die at the hands of the evil ones. But usually in such a noble script, the heroes go down fighting.

In all fairness to many good posters here, there is a distinct possibility that the whole McCain as nominee scenario has been engineered from the start by the Dems and the MSM so as to turn on McCain and slaughter him from the left, and McCain needs no help being slaughtered here from the right. That would leave us with Hillary or Barack in charge, with a Dem Congress and 8 years of payback. At least we can claim we died honorably, right? We either voted for the (nonexistant) prince of our choice, or we stayed home. Look, America is going down the tubes and we can all be proud that it's the Democrats fault, not ours.

But I have a personal problem with not voting. I resigned many years ago to always vote to the best of my ability. Staying home is not an option. So I can't pull the lever for Hillary or Barack...I just can't. What will my conscience think then? If I'm forced to vote for Hitler or Chamberlain, at least the latter speaks English and can be intimidated to behave.