Voters didn't have much choice on ballot

By Brian D. Rossman

After 24 months of campaigning, 12 months of commercials and three debates, I am no closer to picking who I want to be our nation's next president. Such is the life of the undecided voter.

By the time you read this, our 42nd president will have been elected. Hopefully, you will have voted and participated in the process, and it will have been a peaceful revolution.

But, if you are like me, your decision is coming down to the wire. Such is the life of the swing or undecided voter.

According to recent polls conducted during the last week in October, almost 25 percent of voters still haven't decided on a presidential candidate. Sure, these voters, like me, are leaning in one direction or another.

But, as the pollsters who ask for voter preferences, these choices shift from day to day. Why? Because neither candidate is exceptionally compelling, exceptionally abhorrent, nor exceptionally different.

Once again, it comes down to a selection of the lesser of two evils.

Their similarities can be striking. Each candidate has a famous political lineage; Bush is the son of a former president and brother to a governor. Gore is the son of a U.S. senator. Both lack true business or administrative experience. Gore has been a politician and legislator for his 25-year career. Bush had a brief fling as owner of a professional baseball team and is head of a state, where the administrative powers are primarily carried out by the lieutenant governor.

To support Bush, the candidate, one must overcome the constant questions about his temperament, intellect and experience. With the candidacy of Gore, there are questions about his honesty, credibility and veracity. The undecided voter must decide which character issues they can least tolerate. The undecided voter has been procrastinating about this decision and hoping that a new solution would suddenly appear.

Colin Powell, do you hear me?

On election day, the vote will be made with our eyes open and with tempered expectations.

The U.S. Constitution afforded us a wonderful assemblage of checks and balances for our political system. It is at times such as these that I wish we had staggered elections. That way, I could make my decision based on the overall operation of government rather than choosing the candidate in a vacuum. For instance, before I choose the next president, I would like to know which party will control Congress for the next two years.

Our country clearly works best when one party has the presidency and the other is the majority of Congress. This situation invites compromises and levels extreme agendas. With this method, every office that is open for election would be important and dependent on each other.

However, this is not the present case with our voting process. Therefore, the undecided voter must seek other avenues of guidance.

When election day rolls around, for those undecided voters who still have not decided which candidate to select for president, I suggest they visit the website, http://www.sosilver.com/sosilver_political_undecided.htm. This coin company has minted a commemorative look-alike U.S. silver dollar that features George W. Bush in front of the Oval Office at the White House on one side and Albert A. Gore in front of the White House on the other side. It is officially known as the Gore/Bush coin. Clearly, the most productive and best use of the Gore/Bush coin is for the truly undecided Voter on Election Day. What do you say? Best two out of three?

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Campbell native Brian D. Rossman is an attorney and a business consultant for high-tech companies. His column appears every other week in this space. Contact Brian at bdrlaw@bigfoot.com.

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Brian Rossman: Voters didn't have much choice on ballot

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