There will be other Pres/VP candidates on enough ballots nationwide to have an outside chance, so your options aren't limited to Dumb and Dumber... If our political system was anywhere near rational, Obama would be on the Socialist line, McCain would be on the Democrat line, Romney would be on the Republican line, Paul would be on the Libertarian line and Nader would be on the Stalinist line (he's been an "ends justify the means"/"his way ore the highway" type since the Corvair debacle where he manufactured his statistics and I've never heard of his apologizing for any of his lies).
. So know what your politico/economic philosophy is and vote the principles that spring from it (this is the main responsibility of a free citizen) - you'll be able to sleep better on election night.
. There are really only two political philosophies - either individuals should be free to manage their own lives or not. Everything not the first is just some degree of the second. The USA is the only country where the citizens are really supposed to be free (a lot of socialism has crept in with the later waves of European immigrants around the turn of the 20th century) and supposed to be held responsible for their actions (the "natural law" concept). So if you are a true American, you should vote for the one who best reflects those principles. If you find that your favored philosophy is at odds with the American concept, then there is probably at least one other country which applies it, so go there! Trying to change our gov't to some other philosophy got us to the mess where we are now - which isn't as it was intended.
. The Federal gov't was originally designed so that the individual would hardly notice its existence. Generally, county govt was the highest level where issues involving individuals were to be decided so lots of schemes could be tried and either succeed and spread or fail and be discarded without hurting too many people and an individual wouldn't have to move too far to find a more suitable situation. If that had been retained, then most of our Fed. Gov't caused messes wouldn't have happened, from prohibition (alcohol and other drugs) to the great depression to the current fiasco in which we find ourselves enmeshed. One way to distinguish an "individual freedom/individual responsibility" politician is to know if their speech and actions are individual oriented or smacks of group-think (on ethnic, economic, religious, corporate or whatever grounds - it always breaks down to that group vs. this, them vs. us...).
. A cautionary tale: There is a radio talk show host named Neal Boortz who calls himself libertarian, but went against his principles and encouraged voting Republican in the last couple of Presidential elections and we mainly got more of the big federal gov't, higher taxes, lower privacy, valueless currency, and international meddling that libertarians stand against. Neither of the Dem. opponents to Bush could be considered a valid candidate to real Americans (Gore is certifiable, and Kerry is a war criminal (consorting with the enemy while still an active-duty Army officer - he should have been tried by military tribunal and imprisoned or executed on a two-holer along with Jane Fonda)) and had little true chance of winning. So Boortz gained nothing for betraying his principles and lost a degree of self-respect. Boortz's fortunes have declined substantially since then (particularly to libertarians, which he still claims to be) - the list of station outlets he claims for his show is way outdated (WHCU in Ithaca for sure no longer airs his show, so others are sure to be present but not accounted for...).
. The moral: analyze and choose your philosophy with its attendant set of principles carefully and well, and then stick by them. In that way people can have an idea where you stand and what to expect from you. If you choose wrong (disclosed by the consequences of applying incorrect principles), then learn from your mistakes and adjust it.
This sounds like a lot of effort, but freedom isn't free - this is just the down payment.
.bh.
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