How's that? The last election had the highest turnout ever?

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"The problem with Socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people's money."
- Margaret Thatcher

"We had the machine scared and scrambling, and for them it is just the beginning of an election year filled with surprises. They will be challenged again and again across this country. When there's trouble in Massachusetts, there's trouble everywhere -- and now they know it." Senator Scott Brown (R MA)

but the proportion of the vote going to 3rd party candidates is very low, that's how Bush gets over 50%.

Ouch! I don't think that you'll get many Canadians, or Americans for that matter, to agree with you on that one.

__________________
"The problem with Socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people's money."
- Margaret Thatcher

"We had the machine scared and scrambling, and for them it is just the beginning of an election year filled with surprises. They will be challenged again and again across this country. When there's trouble in Massachusetts, there's trouble everywhere -- and now they know it." Senator Scott Brown (R MA)

Isn't that common sense? If Bush got over 50%, and it was a close race, then obviously there were less votes for 3rd parties. I would probably say that was because many voters who typically vote for a 3rd party voted Republican or Democrat because they were so afraid of the other side getting elected. In other words they played right into the major parties' hands.

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"You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, the tallest guy in the NBA is Chinese, the Swiss hold the America's Cup, France is accusing the U.S. of arrogance, Germany doesn't want to go to war, and the three most powerful men in America are named Bush, Dick, and Colon. Need I say more?" - Chris Rock

To us specially those of non British origin, the Queen is a meaningless symbol of faded British Imperialism. Distance and ethnic and cultural diversity make a difference. Canada is compared to Australia practically next to the British Isles, and also Canada is just dwarfed economically by its southern neigbour on which its livelyhood depends. So Canadians have developed a psychology of cultural and economic dependance

Australia on the other hand is a power of its own down under and the logical final step would be to cut the umbilical cord to Great Britain.

Nowadays on the rare occasions the royals fly south at our expense, very few people go to the airport to wave the Union Jack to them.

It is time to say finally we are our own sovereign nation.

British tourists are always welcome of course.

tough! but true

More Ralph Nader votes would have resulted in Kerry getting a smaller vote total. No Conservative or Republican of any ilk would ever vote for that clown.

__________________
"The problem with Socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people's money."
- Margaret Thatcher

"We had the machine scared and scrambling, and for them it is just the beginning of an election year filled with surprises. They will be challenged again and again across this country. When there's trouble in Massachusetts, there's trouble everywhere -- and now they know it." Senator Scott Brown (R MA)

Not necessarily, more votes for Nader could have had no effect on Kerry, but pushed the total vote up overall. My reckoning is that the high profile of the election, and the bitterness of the contest, pushed up turnout among the apathetic centre, but democratic attempts to keep Nader and others off the ballot put off left wing voters from voting at all, if the third party candidates had been on the ballot then more people would have voted, forcing both Bush and Kerry's shares of the vote down.

Now how's that for spin?

Very dizzying.
Nader was on the ballot, so was the Libertarian candidate, IIRC.

__________________
"The problem with Socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people's money."
- Margaret Thatcher

"We had the machine scared and scrambling, and for them it is just the beginning of an election year filled with surprises. They will be challenged again and again across this country. When there's trouble in Massachusetts, there's trouble everywhere -- and now they know it." Senator Scott Brown (R MA)

not everywhere though, certainly in fewer states than in the previous election. The dems went to great lengths to keep him off (and the republicans to great lengths to get him on).

YRW. Nader was Green in 2000 and independent in 2004.

In answer to the thread question "Are the Repbulicans trying to rig the mid terms?"
The elections are over. The Democrats have retaken the house and senate.
I have yet to hear one accusation of voter fraud. Not one case.
But, the Republicans did rig the election. They conducted themselves as guttless wonders. They worked 2 days a week. They spent money as though they were Democrats. They did not police themselves as they would expect the rest of the world to do. They did not stand tall and support the president as they should have. They were mice hoping to not #### off the left as they know that doing that makes the leftwing media turn on them. Which to righteous men should be a badge of honor. Cowards who conduct themselves by not ####### people off go home, as they should.

No argument here.

__________________
"The problem with Socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people's money."
- Margaret Thatcher

"We had the machine scared and scrambling, and for them it is just the beginning of an election year filled with surprises. They will be challenged again and again across this country. When there's trouble in Massachusetts, there's trouble everywhere -- and now they know it." Senator Scott Brown (R MA)

I will certainly agree that the republicans sunk themselves. The idea that "not standing up and supporting the presisdent" had much to do with their loss is ignoring an awful lot of what went on, though.

It was the republicans rubber stamping that XXXXXX policies for so many years that cost them the elections. They supported his idiotic Iraq fantasies, his assinine spending policies, and his absolutly tyrannical view on the constitution. Then, a few months before the elections, they finally look around and realize that Stalin was more popular with people he had stuck in death camps than George Buus was with the american people, so they try to shift course. After YEARS of rubber stamping everything the guy gave them and defending every moronic statement that came out of the guys mouth, they realize the guy is an XXXXX and if they want to get re-elected, they had better try to distance themselves from his stupidity.

So, after sucking the guys nads for years, they finally jump up and say "we don't REALLY agree with him".

Now, I will be the first to admit that the american people are a bunch of apathetic, gullible fools. Even the American public is not quite that stupid.

The republicans lost because they did a crappy job. They led the country off in the wrong direction, cost us trillions, and made us less safe, despite mounting a serious offensive against the bill of rights, which was supposed to protect us.

Hopefully, the republicans will pull their heads out of their butts and try to get back to actual conservative values. Then maybe they can get back into power. While watching them pick on gay people, strip civil rights, and blow money like drunken sailors in a whore house was interesting, it got old pretty quick.

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If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen. —Samuel Adams

Number 1. define how Americans are less safe. What event occurred after Sep. 11 that would prove that.
What economic event suggest that Bush had an adverse effect on Society.
Deficit? America functioned with a massive deficit from the 40's to the 90's. Nobody noticed.
If your comparison of Bush's popularity to Stalin's after throwing Russians into death camps holds any truth, it would define the American people as the XXXXXX.
But, they are not much different than any other nation of fools, who's been led around by the nose by the media.
If Bush's war on terror does not go forward. If American's do not continue the war on Iraqi soil, it will come home. Then, you can whine about how safe you are.
Speaking of whining, what civil right have you lost? Please don't dig into your imagination. What can you not do now that you did before America was attacked?
Next, please give a clue as to what a leftist leadership will do that will bring safety and prosperity to you.