From http://www.electoral-vote.com/

One issue that has been totally absent from the campaign is the Supreme Court. The median age of the justices is 71. No spring chickens here except for Clarence Thomas, a mere stripling at 56. Here are the current justices.

Breyer	Ginsburg	Kennedy	O’Connor	Rehnquist	Scalia	Souter	Stevens	Thomas

It is very likely than multiple vacancies will occur on the Court in the next four years. The court will undoubtedly have to rule on cases involving abortion, the Patriot Act, and other divisive issues. If you are an undecided voter, think carefully about which candidate would make better appointments to the Supreme Court. Furthermore, a president makes far more appointment to the appellate courts than to the Supreme Court, and they hear far more cases per year. If you approve of the appointments Bush has made to the appellate courts, surely you want to give him the chance to make more. If you don’t approve, maybe somebody else should be doing the appointing. The next president’s appointments could shape the country for decades to come. It is at least worth discussing. If you have a blog, this topic might even be worth blogging about.

I lifted this table from page 14 of 16 in The Separate Realities of Bush and Kerry Supporters (Acrobat PDF). Is my intent to paint Bush supporters as ignorant — well, maybe, a little. However, I’d blame Bush himself — how well does he communicate if his most devoted supporters don’t know his positions? This is shocking. mjh

Foreign Policy in the Presidential Election CFR – Council on Foreign Relations

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US News / Special: Decision 2004 | The Christian Science Monitor

This electoral map is special because it lets you divvy out the swing states. You decide. mjh

GeorgeSoros.com

Dear Mr. Soros,
I am a life-long Republican from Wyoming. I have watched with disgust as the Bush administration repeatedly mislead and bullied the American public and our traditional allies. I could not, in good conscience, continue to support my party’s candidate for the White House. I find myself compelled to help bring an end to this administration. I have temporarily moved to St. Louis, Missouri in order to volunteer full time with America Coming Together to help register voters and get them to the polls in an important swing state. It is the first time I have engaged in this sort of grassroots activism. I find it ironic that my first political activism is directed to opposing my own party’s candidate. Like me, my parents back in Wyoming are life-long Republicans, but they too will be voting for John Kerry next month. I am doing my best to convince my brother as well. I just wanted to let you know that your appeals to moderate Republicans have worked, and are likely to succeed with others. Thanks for your generous donations to ACT. Please keep up your efforts, and know that you have companions in the fight!
Sincerely,
Ted Preston, MO

I am a registered Republican, 34 years old, and have surprised myself by becoming a Kerry supporter. The Iraq quagmire is reason #1, but I am equally fearful of the hold of the religious right on the party and of the detrimental effect of Bush’s myopic (at best) environmental policies. The Bush stance on abortion and gay marriage decry my fundamental (and I thought ‘Republican’) belief that individuals can make better choices than the government can for us. And seriously, I am a married heterosexual, but how does gay marriage hurt what my wife and I have IN ANY WAY? And the party keeps slipping towards intolerance in other ways. For the first time, the ‘official’ Republican platform removed the exception to the (so-called) pro-life stance in the case when a woman’s life is in danger. And then there is the Bush environmental policy, which at every turn favors business profits at the cost of sound and sustainable environmental policy. May God save us if we continue on this path. Thanks for your commitment and efforts.
T.B.

In 2000 I was one of the military voters that cast an absentee ballot in Florida for George Bush. This election I will again use an absentee ballot to vote in Florida but cannot in good conscience vote for the incumbent.
E.S.

I was a Republican for 28 years and am now fighting to get Kerry elected because of your exact views. Bush and his administration have isolated us in the world and made us more vulnerable to terrorists, by alienating our allies with Bush’s arrogance toward them and his “my way or the highway” attitude! Also, if they’re given 4 more years, they’ll push their religious and cultural views on all of us. Our freedoms are slipping away – including our ability to speak out against the Republican way and to get honest, balanced news.
Patty G., OH

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