God, please deliver us from such ignorace!
Votes for third party candidates do not add to either of the main candidate totals nor do they subtract from either of their totals.
You act as if these voters owe their votes to one party or the other which is absolutely wrong. Many times third party voters would, as this person indicates, would not vote for either of the two main choices if that is all there was and quite frankly, if it were not for Sarah Palin, there are many, many, many voters who would not vote for McCain.
There are no votes 'against' a candidate, only votes for.
No, ignorance would be not understanding the term “effectively.”
With Obama ahead in just about every poll, every vote you take away from McCain puts him further behind, rendering it an “effective” vote for Obama.
Thought that was so clear.