The way the question is framed is important. I am neither an Independent, a Democrat, nor a Republican. I am for neither Barack Obama nor John McCain, and in fact am opposed to both of these candidates.

The survey could only be viewed as "inclusive" in a rigid green way. The omission of "none of the above" or other choices is telling.

I'm not sure what the purpose of the poll is, but since it's on a site that tries to promote integral choices why does it only have ethnocentric options? Not even all of the ethnocentric options are asked like Bob Barr for the Libertarians or any of the other 3rd parties.

More importantly where are the worldcentric choices, are those even possibilities in this type of poll?

The choices were deliberate. The name of the poll was "Barack Obama or John McCain?" Not "Of all the choices available to you, who do you support as president?"

I am intentionally narrowing this poll down to the two "mainstream" candidates. If you truly cannot choose between them, then just leave a comment as to why.

Same with political platforms. I intentionally offered only the mainstream affiliations, mostly to get some idea of whether Integralites lean to the Right, to the Left, or refrain from affiliation with either, and are thus independents. I understand these labels likely do not apply to those living outside the U.S., so just pick the platform you most resonate with, based on your understanding of the American political system.

please take a look at The World's Smallest Political quiz, available at www.TheAdvocates.org. In my opinion, this gets at more of the real diversity of political opinion. This would be an interesting pool qustion.

In a two-party system such as ours, it's completely irrelevant to vote for anyone other than the two candidates presented here. If you want to make a statement, fine, but don't pretend that it's anything more than your own refusal to participate in our less-than-perfect system. Now if we had a parliamentary democracy, that would be different.

Corey is being accused of both being "green" and of not including enough. No projection going on here, that's for sure.

Liz

In the future, perhaps as Tamgoddess has indicated, we may have a richer field of choice. But, that will only come about by folks participating rather than just complaining.

I'm looking forward to the empowerment of Transpartisan perspectives informing these kinds of political decisions in the future. Keep an eye out for the forthcoming book, 'Voice of the People: The Transpartisan Imperative in American Life' by A.L.Chickering & James J. Turner. (to be release July 4th).

Doug

It's hard to sort out fact from fiction or truth from bias. Does anyone know of a good source for intelligent, unbiased political reporting? If so, please email me at gnarus@comcast.net.

~Scott

Whatever we might prefer as to "more choices," the disasters of the past 7+ years (and the potential for worse with more Supreme Court appointments, less accountability by Federal officials, and increasing secretiveness and lack of balance between the executive branch and Congress) make it abundantly clear that the choice this time really, really matters. It cannot be good for people or the planet to continue a regime of war, incompetence, greed and disregard for the consequences of global warming, unrestrained big corporations, homophobia, racism and the like. I really don't want another four years of Karl Rove, Dick Cheney and crew (even wrapped in the undoubted patriotism of John McCain -- himself the victim of another senseless war).
Sam

While I respect the pragmatic boundaries of the poll, I feel it's "limited choices" boundary is a reaction to the large numbers of those who selected Ron Paul in the last presidential poll on this site. Thus, historically the new poll from the outset is biased against the choices of many who visit this site. Context and history aside, this biased limited choice was viewed necessary for the pragmatic purpose of evaluating which of the major party candidates participants on this site would choose if they were forced to make a choice. Under these conditions, while omission of lesser candidates may be appropriate, I think "None of the Above" or "Decline to vote" would still be useful options, since while I may indeed pragmatically vote for Obama or McCain, some of us will, on principle, refuse to vote for the lesser of two perceived evils. Thus, the "None of the Above" choice would make this poll more accurate for predicting the future votes of participants here.

On the other hand, if the implicit purpose of this poll is to provide basis to later assert that those interested in the integral approach predominantly support Obama, then the poll likely serves as a false unifier for this lower left quadrant purpose albeit at a "limited choices" Coke or Pepsi blue level. Inclusion of "None of the above" would at least raise the poll to orange; Green would require burdensome listing of additional non-major party candidates. Any comments on what a second tier based poll might look like?

Doug/Liz,

Our political system has evovled into a 'vote to keep the other guy out' ...has been for a long time, america was lost long before the turn of the century, not by bush, although he sure has sped things up a bit.

Voting for either party is not a solution, only a gurantee of 'more of the same'

There will be no meaningful change whther obama or mccain get elected, they will pass policies you may like/dislike but at the end of the day those policies are treating symptoms, not solving the underlying problem.

So in fact, NOT voting at all or voting for a thirdparty that will not win is the most logical choice to bring about change, it won't happen immeditaly and no doubt things will get much worse...but they have to. If everyone stopped voting to keep the other guy out and voted for the best candidate you'd see the creation of a legitimate third-party.

to expand on Ilenes thoughts:

If one is at 2nd tier, are they not operating from a libertarianism world vew? where libertarianism = the right of any person to live their life the way they choose so long as that way does not infringe on another persons right to live the life they choose.

Pretty simple, it's what we are tought america is but surely is not. sorry to pop your bubble but quit voting, you're @%#@%@#$%@$# us all !

Obama will only continue to expand the military/industrial complex, he'll just support and push for a bunch of progressive domestic programs to keep you distracted. Its all a shell game.