MoveOn Primary

Today is the MoveOn which I voted in today after I signed up at the last minute (~12:30 last night).

My candidate: Howard Dean
But I also emphasized that I would support any Democratic candidate up to and including Lieberman and Mosley-Braun in the general election against Bush. Hell, I’d support many Republicans, even Bush’s father, over our current president.

I am a Dean fan like a lot of left leaning folks, and a seemingly large number of people who read and write liberal blogs. I like him and I actually feel he can win. More on that later.

Bob Harris at This Modern World likes Kucinich who he believes is more progressive. He created a chart showing the difference between Kucinich and Dean on various positions. I am still a Dean fan and am probably more conservative (I certainly have more libertarian leanings) than Mr. Harris.

Then Dan Perkins (aka Tom Tommorow himself) posted an entry where he emphasizes that Harris is the one supporting Kucinich and that he isn’t behind anyone yet. Then he curiously advises that people should vote for the candidate they prefer to see president and not be as concerned with electability. I have to disagree. The MoveOn primary seems to serve two main functions: to act as a kind of poll and to generate press and buzz for the candidates particularly the winner. I believe you should vote as if this was the actual primary. If you want Dean (or whoever) to be the nominee, you should vote for him even if you agree with someone like Kucinich more.

Another issue is that is an online poll, and there is a rule that all online polls can be spammed. MoveOn does seem to be doing all it can to stop that: requiring a full name an address along with a valid e-mail. But of course e-mail address can be generated automatically and quickly by someone with a domain name. They are checking for similar e-mails from one domain name (such as spam001@scharlack.com, spam002@scharlack.com, etc), but many people control several domain names. I, as an occasional web designer have pretty much direct control over six domain names. I could use faked names and addresses of myself, work, parents, friends, etc. or even fake everything. Admittedly MoveOn is doing some random telephone polling to try to catch duplicate voters. While it may be hard (though hardly impossible) to rig thousands of votes, it certainly wouldn’t be hard to get more than a few extras. I am doing none of this of course. I am too lazy to even call my friends up and tell them about this. I am also honest.