From a European standpoint
Since I grew up in the US but have German citizenship, I can understand Scott's feelings very very well. I don't think anything has been truly right since Robert and Martin were murdered.
At the same time, will you forgive a non-American for commenting here? (If not, just skip the rest of this reply).
Scott - and everyone who is thinking of writing in a candidate who can't win, abstaining, etc. I want to ask you to reconsider.
It is the nature of things that the democrat's nominee is going to be a compromise. This is because democrats are made up of various interest groups - people who care about human freedom (not always including my gay rights), people who only care about racial issues, people who put the environment before other people, people who are strict constitutionallists, people who are socialists, people who are...
So whomever your country ultimately chooses is going to fail us in one or more areas which we hold dear.
That is inevitable. The real question for the rest of this planet is not who is the best, but who is the least bad of the choices given. It is going to be a tight situation, you have seen how your congress has had its hands tied by the too narrow majority of the democrats - independents and republicans can stop any legislation which would change things. There is a real danger of this happening in 2008. Especially if people of conscience vote 'protest' instead of 'prevent'.
If you don't vote for a candidate who has a genuine chance of winning, then you will be empowering the extremists - on both sides - and they will decide the election. It happened to Germany in the 1930s.
Please, even if you have to hold your nose - vote realistically. I have been voting all my adult life, never missed an election. From 1976 to 1995, I voted as a US citizen. Never once did I vote 'for' someone, always 'against' someone. Since 1995, as a German citizen I have done exactly the same.
You may wake up the next day thinking you prostituted yourself, ok, sure - but your nation no longer enjoys habeus corpus rights. When you can be apprehended at any time, without cause and held indefinitely without cause or appeal, maybe it is time to focus on the real basics. Living in Europe, where homosexuals enjoy human rights, I gag every time I am confronted with the 'moderate' democratic party line. But even the worst of the democrats has promised to restore habeus corpus...and, sadly, there is a very good chance that the next president will be appointing at least one if not two supreme court justices. Isn't that worth a bit of whoring?