Politics be damned
Most of my hippy friends are wishing they could justify voting for Nader, but will probably vote Obama. I don't know. In my opinion the Republicans had 7 years to flush our country down the tubes with some of the worst choices in American history (Iraq, foreign policy in general, Katrina, economic regulatory meltdown (though frankly the Dems are just as much to blame here I think, but it was Bernanke, appointed by Bush who fiddled while Rome burned), energy independence, fiscal and monetary policy, WTO, poverty, trade policy, etc). On the other hand... very few of the Dems have shown a backbone and stood up to the Republicans. My favorite Presidential candidates were Ron Paul on the Republican side and Dennis Kucinich on the Dem side. Both these guys may be a little extreme, but they have held to their principles, aren't owned by the special interests, and are consistent and smart in their foreign and domestic policy.
I'll vote for Obama. I think he has the right values, and I respect his position on foreign policy and his careful intellectual approach to decision making. Many politicians, especially our current administration makes up for lack of expertise with brashness and over decisiveness. I don't trust McCain's temper, and I don't like his foreign policy. Palin? From the interviews that I've seen she isn't up to the job, even if I agreed with her ideology, which I don't. I think it's embarrassing that some GOP strategist thinks that such an obvious politically motivated move would be convincing.