Which is more devastating:
1. A Conservative/Republican without a voting record. or
2. A Facist/Democrat with a voting record?

I am 63 and have always voted, not strictly Republican, Democrat or Independent. But I can't remember the last tiime I voted FOR someone and not AGAINST a candidate. If I lived in California, I would probably give Whitman a pass on her voting record and place more in her accomplishments in the real world instead of the career politicians who have done nothing but make a living running for office.

Susan, with all due respect, you're reaching.

Susan, like you, I live in California. Were it no for Illinois (my home State) and New Jersey we would be the most corrupt State. Were it not for Massachusetts and New York we would be the most taxed State( although we are catching up fast). I would gladly vote for a professional manager from Mars (assuming naturalized citizen status) that has never voted than to have to choose between two professional California politicians. This State is so badly gerrymandered that no State politician ever looses a seat in an election. Number of seats that changed political parties in the last general election: zero. This lady looks very good, and I do not care what party she represents.

"But the more basic question is one of values. It's about character, not how interested you are."

Wow, Susan. If you really believed this why have you been working for Democrats all your life?

If this is a problem, then surely a Senator that opts not to vote on bills because he might turn off potential voters when he runs for president, is a bigger one.

If this is a problem, then surely a Senator that opts not to vote on bills because he might turn off potential voters when he runs for president, is a bigger one.

Wow, Susan some of these posters are hitting hard against the Democrats. I have to agree about the character and intergity of a person and after all we do have ACORN who is out registering to get people to vote, maybe they just missed Whitman.

California of which I was a resident from 1971 and company owner until 1988 was always about more taxation and more unions which lead to my decision to close out and leave. When the state was talking about raising taxes to give teachers a pay raise I received a copy of what teachers and so forth were getting paid. It blew my mind to find out that the man who drove the Supt of Education for LA received $94,000, plus overtime. My engineers brought this to my attention that a driver was getting paid almost double what they were with out no responsibility for a building, street, house or anything else. Then it showed that teacher were getting almost the same salary as an engineer responsible for a multi-million dollar mall, high rise building, but, without any responsibility for their output. This lead to my decision to leave the state. It would appear that a lot of other business owners did the same as the tax base keeps shrinking. I would suggest maybe they put in a 50% tax on income like London did recently for high income earners (Hollywood) to help reduce the deficit.

On on Whitman voting or not voting that is a personal decision, but, her record in business is strictly open for everyone to see and check. As the Democrats have run the state of California ever since Reagan left it has been downhill. Reagan was the last governor who actually has a budget surplus and he kept the unions in check to do it. Of course since he had worked with the Actors Union he knew how to handle them.

So the choice is up to the people of California either get fiscal responsibility in order or continue to drive business out of the state with no tax revenue from companies or people.

Oh Susan how can you be so nieve or are you??? Look at the world and look at our country and honestly how can you support your party and what is happening????? I was as democrat and come from a strong democratic family but now I am registered independent. I am ashamed of what has become of the party (I was told in my youth) of the people. Now I see a party of those who have to pay back for getting elected at the cost of those who elected them. Reading about men getting killed in Afghanistan and seeing the President on dates, touring the world, going over seas to fight for olympics making health care reform his biggest issue (yes pay backs to unions) and not caring about our soldiers who are fighting and dying for our freedom make me nauseous. I see a man focused on getting socialism in place. Please tell Hillary to tell him without keeping our country safe and independent there will be no country to control. I am 54 and there has never been such a disaster in the White House even Carter looks better then Obama.

Many years ago on an election day, I got a date with a beauty that I had been desparately trying to get a relationship started. We drove from the college campus to the local bar near my off-campus apartment. It was closed becuse the polls were still open. As we sat there waiting for the polls to close, she asked me if I had voted that day. When I said no, I got a good lecture in responsibility. I told her that I only knew one person on the ballot that I would vote for, a young black man named Ron Ford. She convinced me to go to the polls and vote. I only voted for Mr. Ford. Imagine my shock the next day when I discovered that the race had ended in a dead flat tie. In Lancaster, Pa, they decide such ties by casting lots from a pool pill bottle at the courthouse. Mr. Ford won that casting of the lots. Without my one vote, Mr. Ford would not have had the opportunity to serve on the city council and also be re-elected because he became a popular and well-liked representative of the people. I have often thought about that and how important my one vote was in that election. Later, when I decided to run for political office, I realized how important each vote was and campaigned that much harder and made a point to meet each and every voter that I could. I did many door to door campaigns. Only a person who has seen the value of voting can appreciate the value of going one on one with voters. Your gubernatorial candidate might appreciate voters more if she was a voter herself.

Susan,

This article is, of course, 100% correct. However, as many other commentors have pointed out, what are we to do when the alternatives have even bigger issues?