Ralph Nader visited Kalamazoo today. Among other things, he tolld the audience (according to the Kalamazoo Gazette article) to”vote your conscience.” And, in general, this seems like a reasonable thing to say. But, of course, Nader is only on the ballot in Michigan because the Republican Party passed out petitions for him, because they hope (and not unreasonably so) that this will draw votes away from Kerry. My conscience says not to vote for people who cannot attract enough workers to get on the ballot. Not enough people learned the lessons of the 2004 election.

I talked to a dear relative of mine tonight, who’s upset that the teapot tempest concerning the possible forgery of memos concerning Bush’s military career is focusing on whether the memos were forged rather than what actually happened during these years. I personally find it interesting that the real issues of Bush’s first term of office, and which administration would be better for the US in the coming years, are not being discussed. My dear relative does like Edwards though: he seems nice and talks well.