Ralph was saying this in 2000 when the Whitehouse was up for grabs, he was saying it in 1996 when a corporate Democrat was President, he was saying it in 2004 when an even more corporate Republican was President and he's still saying it now. And he's still right.

So why do I not care now who I vote for, after 7+ years of misrule by the Bush adminstration? Well, the reasons are numerous:

1. Bush is not running for re-election - he can't - so it's hard to get excited about booting the fucker out of office, especially now that the Democrats appear too craven and cynical to even try to hold him to account;

2. The only really really scary candidate on foreign policy, Rudy Giuliani, doesn't have a chance of getting the GOP nod;

3. With the exception of Kucinich (who has, alas, other fatal faults unfortunately) and to a lesser extent Edwards, all the major Democratic candidates are essentially neo-liberal in economic, fiscal and trade policies. Hard to get excited about that;

4. It's hard to get excited to vote for a party which hasn't accomplished squat for working people since I was just entering the 1st Grade (Nixon was President then, for those keeping score)

5. We had a Presidential and Paliamentary election in France just last year; my first choice lost in the first round, my second choice in the second round and the right wins all the parliamentary elections you can hope for in the place I am registered, so I'm both a bit dispirited from that still and also "electioned-out," and I suspect I'm probably a minority on this score.

6. I know that the rules of this contest, as well as the forum it is being held (and its predominent audience) will ensure that the vote will not be cast for a Republican (with the possible exception of Huckabee, at least at the caucus level).

Ok, now, to the contest. First, some background. I am registered to vote in the State of Minnesota, which holds its caucuses on February 5th. The Democrats are called DFL (Democratic Farmer Labor) here. The only two elections which really matter in terms of candidate preference are the races for President (both parties, of course) and Senate (DFL race only).

You all know the candidates who are running for President  on the Democratic and Republican sides due to all the recent good diaries on this hereabouts. Other races are for the Green Party (full disclosure, I like Cynthia McKinney and dislike what the Democratic party did to her). And Bloomberg might be running too.

For Senate, on the GOP side, there's no contest, Norm Coleman (an execrable hawk on foreign policy, but only really bad on domestic US policies) is running for re-election, while there is a horse race for the DFL race. The most progressive candidate, Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, doesn't stand a chance, as is usual in the Democratic party. Imho, he's best on the issues, is a good man (close friend of a very respected acquaintance of mine) and unlike the two main candidates, was right about the Iraq war. Follow this link for info on funny guy Al Franken, or this link on Mike Ciresi, arguably the candidate of the local DFL establishment and wealthy, respected lawyer. Jim Cohen is also running. I'd like to say I'll be happy with any of the front-runners (Ciresi and Franken) but after the turkey of a Democrat we elected in 2006 to the senate, Amy Klobuchar, I'm twice shy upon having been once again bitten.

There's really no Green caucus that matters here anymore so I won't think this should be an option.

Now for the rules of the contest.

1. You must not be a US citizen to play. No belly-aching by Americans, please, there shall be no double voting. I know the Democratic machine in Chicago believes in voting early and especially often, but this doesn't give poemless easy license to do so.

2. Your user ID must be lower than 4000.

3. You must write a comment saying how I should vote and why.

4. The comment should contain the following information:

a. Which caucus I should go to and why.

b. Which Presidential candidate I should support at that caucus and why.

c. Which Senate candidate I should support and why.

d. Which party/candidate I should support in the General elections (note, this can be different than the caucus). Please note that I will under no circumstances vote for Norm Coleman. You can write "generic Green" or "generic Independence Party (Jesse Ventura's party) if you like, though.

e. Any third party candidate from the political left is ok to choose in the general. I don't know who these will be at the moment, but go ahead and look at which party ran candidates in the '04 election if you like. The Libertarian party is not a party of the left.

f. Comment must be made prior to midnight 27 January 2008 Central European time.

g. Post must be written in one of the official languages of the countries comprising the Eurozone, special exception made for Danish (but not Swedish) .

5. I will pick the top five reponse and put them in a poll in a brief follow-up diary for a vote.

6. The poll for finalists will be open until midnight 4 February 2008 Central European time.

Happy voting, and good luck!