Hello Everyone.

I will be old enough (finally) to vote this 2004 Presidential Election. I am very excited about having this privilege and I cannot wait until I can actually do it. I'm not sure who I will be voting for yet, but I am looking into it. I was just wondering, who was the first Presidential candidate that you voted for?

Cool, Peach! And I hope you never miss an opportunity to vote.

My first vote, at age 18 in 1976, was cast by absentee ballot because I was away at college. I voted for Gerald Ford, who lost to Jimmy Carter. I considered Mr. Ford a true public servant who had restored dignity to the White House after the Watergate fiasco.

1976 is also the last time I can recall thinking that I really liked both of the candidates! It's a shame we can't have two good options every time.

Welcome back, Peach, and good for you for voting! Like Fuse, i hope you always take the privilege seriously, and always 'look into' who you want to vote for.

My first vote was cast (not for Washington, as some may have you believe) in 1972, for comedian-turned-social activist Dick Gregory. I knew the Democrat, George McGovern, had no chance of beating Republican Richard Nixon, and, while I liked a great many things about McGovern, I wanted my vote to be a statement, to mean something. At that time, Gregory was very active in calling attention to the plight of the poor and homeless in America, and felt that too much money was spent or given away to programs benefitting the wealthy. One of the things I remember Gregory saying is that "30, 40, 50 years from now, Americans will be vacationing in Vietnam, and millions will still be living here in poverty."
I am certain that no one outside of my home county was even aware that there was a vote for Gregory, just as I am certain that every politician in my then lily-white home town knew that SOMEONE living here had voted for a black comedian for president. I am very proud of my first vote.

Fuse, that was the last time I liked both candidates, too, although I felt Ford would have made a poor president on his own, even though he did the right thing by pardoning Nixon. Carter, one of the finest men to ever hold that office, turned out to be a poor president. I suspect that being a good man is incompatible with being a good president today. In my lifetime, besides Carter and Ford, the only other good man that has held the office was Truman, in my opinion, with a maybe for Eisenhower.

[This message was edited by Doriangreyed on 02-06-04 at 01:00 AM.]