I support "Candidate List", where each candidate lists all the other candidates in order of THAT candidate's preference, i.e. "If I don't win a seat, I'd prefer all the votes I got to be transferred to candidate B; if they don't get enough to win a seat, then transfer my votes to candidate C", and so forth.

That's been tried and has led to some strange outcomes that aren't even close to representative of the population.

Senator Dole,

Like many others, I am an American citizen, a patriot, a loving father, a good husband, an all-around decent human being - and an atheist. I am appalled and ashamed at the small-minded and vicious bigotry your campaign has recently displayed in its attacks on your opponent, Kay Hagan, as it comprises outright slander against the entire community of American atheists. This sort of bigotry is shameful and un-American. I can see no reason why a candidate capable of standing on the basis of her record and policies would descend to what is essentially the modern-day equivalent of attacking one's opponent as a "n*gger-lover" - as if recognizing that members of minorities are human beings and Americans were somehow shameful. Based on your campaign's conduct with regard to Mrs. Hagan's decision to attend a fundraiser organizaed by the Kaminers, I have little doubt that, had this race occurred 50 years earlier, your campaign would have done exactly that.

As a citizen of California, I have no direct stake in this race, for which your campaign's bigotry makes me exceedingly glad. As a show of solidarity for a candidate and human being who took a courageous stand in embracing the American principles of liberty, tolerance, and the unity of disparate groups working for a common purpose, and to join many members of my community in publicly declaring that pandering to bigots is not a defensible strategy for winning elections or for anything else, I have made a monetary contribution to Kay Hagan's campaign. I know I am not alone.

I am exceedingly glad to see that prediction sites are giving her good chances of winning, and I hope you and your campaign get the message that appealing to the worst in the American character, and pandering to bigotry against minority groups, are neither viable nor acceptable in this great nation.

Sincerely,
Alex Weaver

I've been enjoying watching the polls and seeing Ms. Dole go down in flames. Desparate indeed. I think I'll throw her an anvil.

A broadcast ad targeting her opponent, Democratic state Sen. Kay Hagan, shows Dole ratcheting up her rhetoric, and probably winning the honor, so far, of fielding the nastiest, most misleading, negative ad of the campaign. Here's part of the ad that portrays Hagan as a godless liberal:

"Godless Americans Political Action Committee is a left-wing organization...

"They actively support political candidates who are atheists and who also support their liberal agenda to remove 'under God' from the Pledge of Allegiance and force the Boy Scouts to accept atheists and homosexuals as troop leaders."

Dole's campaign made the same charge in a widely-distributed mailer.

Yes, it's true, as the ad states, Hagan did attend a fundraiser in September hosted by author Wendy Kaminer and her husband Woody Kaplan. Kaplan serves on the board of the Godless Americans PAC, whose agenda includes putting atheists in office and removing the pledge from schools.

But that doesn't make Hagan an atheist or anti-American. Hagan is an elder at the First Presbyterian Church in Greensboro and she does not support removing the "Under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance.

Democracy, in the end, is always a case of two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.

Actually it isn't. A country is a democracy only so long as there is broad consensus on any issues worth killing & dieing for.

If the vote is over whether to kill some of the voters, any who would be killed will take up arms rather than accept the results of such a vote.

See http://dougmuder.blogspot.com/2008/05/pirate-treasure-why-oil-and-democracy.html
for an discussion of the effects of this.