To: hcm1943 who wrote (2909 ) 8/9/2000 10:04:44 AM From: Judith Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 3389 hcm1943, I see we have the same opinion of Hillary and Bill. Yes, there may be people who just vote the straight party line, but as I said in my previous post, people have strong opinions of Hillary. Therefore, those who dislike her as much as you and I will easily split their vote. I leave for the winter to Florida, but I feel so strongly against Hillary, that I will stay in NY until election day to vote against her. I would vote for anyone but Hillary, even if I disagreed with everything they said. I have spoken to other people who feel the same way. I do not think that Gore picked Leiberman specifically to help Hillary. My own opinion is that he was probably looking to distance himself from the constant Republican linking of his morals and character with that of Clinton. Also, he may be hoping the religious moderate/liberal Republican voters would be drawn to a religious, family values type guy. I watched Alan Keyes on Politically Incorrect last night, and he seemed to feel his issues of the moral state of the country was vindicated by the selection of Leiberman. He seemed to think it was a good choice. It's a big gamble, but perhaps some from the religious right will be drawn to Leiberman. Also, while there are many who will not vote for Gore because Leiberman is Jewish, Gore may be thinking he would lose those states to Bush anyway, and is hoping for Jewish voters to turn out and vote Democrat in some key larger states. I have watched a few talk shows with Leiberman and also his speech in Tennessee. He seems like a really personable guy. People may be drawn to him regardless of his religion. As for why my family and I will be voting for Gore, I will speak for myself. I am a registered Democrat, but tend to be a conservative Democrat/liberal Republican. I don't agree with all the Democrat issues, but there are some things I feel strongly about...pro-choice, prescription drugs for senior citizens as part of medicare, fixing our screwed up health insurance system, and using surplus to pay down the debt and keep social security healthy. Except in the case of Hillary, I will not vote for any candidate that is not Pro-choice. I pick the issues that are important to me, and go with those, even if there are other things I don't always agree with. (I would love to see lower tax rates - especially capital gains taxes, and an end to the death tax). Since most legislation is more an issue of the make up of the congress, I am more concerned with the President selecting supreme court justices, and definitely don't want a pro-life President making those choices. Sorry...I got carried away in my response..didn't mean to make it this long :) Judith