Quote Originally Posted by hoglahoo View Post
Right!

So do you think these:

are indicators that int'l SRP members will vote for Obama, but are also indicators that US-voter SRP members will vote for McCain? Or does the relevance of those demographics pale in comparison to the simple national vs international question?
the demographics I mentioned are relevant in the context of a society where the 2 major options are rep / dem, and where that choice has an influence on every aspect of your national politics.

I don't know how I would vote if I was a US citizen. Being who I am, I would probably still be a democrat, but I am not sure. I think I would decide on an election by election basis. Even over here, I am not a faithful voter. But I digress.

The major reason why JMS's poll was skewed by non-American votes is that for us, only 2 aspects are really relevant, and that is the approach to foreign affairs and dealing with the financial crisis.
there are only 2 realistic candidates:
Obama: will probably improve foreign relations, not start another war, and deal with the economy
McCain: will probably continue the same road as Bush, has a significant chance of dying mid term and leaving he US with President Palin: a right wing extremist, pretty stupid and christian fundamentalist.

So you see: all the internal issues that have a relation with the specified demographics in one way or another, are simply irrelevant for non-Americans. For the issues that we care about, there is a very large difference between both candidates. Obama is who we would prefer, for those very specific reasons I already mentioned.
If we had to choose based on everything that is relevant to you, the turnout would be more divided. But for us, the issue is much simpler. The only demographic that is relevant for us is that we are non-Americans.