Even though I’m a true Democrat, I changed my voter registration to Republican so I could vote in Florida’s closed Presidential Preference Primary this month and influence the 2012 election process.
I’ve watched the Republican primary slate expand and contract, and now there are four men vying to run against President Obama on November 6th. After a blow-out in South Carolina, Newt Gingrich now seems to have a good chance to beat Mitt Romney in Florida, but Rick Santorum and Ron Paul are hanging in, and as of now both seem likely to continue on to the next primaries in Maine and Nevada on February 4.
Florida’s primary is winner-take-all, and I don’t doubt that the winner will either be Romney or Gingrich. So who should I vote for when the thought of either of them in the White House is enough to literally send me packing?
Here’s where I have to remember my strategy.
My goal is not to choose the lesser of evils and give that candidate my vote.
My goal is to extend the length of time before the Republican nomination is assured and the candidates and their PACs completely turn their attention and their money to President Obama.
I want to keep them attacking each other as long as possible. I want them to keep their “circular firing squad” in business. I want them to keep tearing each other apart and doing our work for us as long as possible. I want them paying for the commercials and attack ads that we would otherwise have to do.
So I’ve decided that casting my Florida Republican ballot for anyone-but-Mitt-or-Newt is the answer.
And since I believe that a Ron Paul third-party candidacy (which he has refused to rule out) would help Obama, I want to do what I can to encourage that decision.
That’s how I decided. I’m going to cast my ballot for Ron Paul in the Florida Primary.
So what do you think about that?