The Most Important Decision Ever

In the United States, today is officially Election Day 2012.

All the debates, all the commercials, all the campaign stops, the robocalls, the campaign visitors, and sadly the ugly voter suppression - all of that has led up to today. We can't vote for you, nor can we force you to vote one way or another, though we do have some recommendations, as always based on facts.

Our first recommendation is simple: Vote.

If you have to stand in line for hours? Stand in line - and vote. Bring a collapsable chair, if you want. Some voters in Florida waited until 2:30 AM on Monday to vote - and they began waiting on Sunday afternoon. Millions of Americans have fought, marched, and died for your right to vote, on battlefields around the world - and on the streets of American cities like Selma, Montgomery, and Seneca Falls. Don't make their sacrifices a waste.

Our second recommendation is not to vote for any candidate that supports making the exercise of your constitutional right to vote a task of herculean proportions. Frankly, we have no idea why anyone would vote for any candidate that has as the core of its modern philosophy, the idea that they do not want everyone to vote. That is - literally - the philosophy of the modern Republican Party, as voiced by the founder of the extremist wing of the GOP, Paul Weyrich. If a political party led by extremists like that will try to limit citizens' basic constitutional rights, history says there's likely no end to their crazy ambition.

Our candidate recommendations this year are simple - and no, we don't think you should just vote Democratic. Not all Republicans are like the crazy Mr. Weyrich. We simply want you to vote for the best candidates.

As President, Barack Obama has done an incredible job in the face of the intractable and disastrous Republicans in Congress - especially when we look at the economic and foreign policy disaster that was handed to him. President Obama is, in the opinion of our entire staff, the only HONEST and logical choice for President, a man who has proven he will always try to find common ground, and will do what is right - especially when doing so is hard.

Along the same lines, for U.S. Senate from Nebraska, we choose Bob Kerrey. Yes, he is a conservative Democrat, one of the last in existence in professional politics. He is also honest to a fault sometimes. It is the Kerrey standard that is so often referred to when Americans long for bipartisanship, the idea Mr. Kerrey became known for the first time he was in the U.S. Senate. His idea is often repeated in political circles, that if you're angering people on both sides of the aisle, you must be doing something right - but you're also probably getting something done.

Our other candidate recommendations follow directly from the idea of moving forward. From Bill Nelson and Patrick Murphy in Florida, to Wayne Powell and Tim Kaine in Virginia, to Bob Kerrey, John Ewing, and Jeff Fortenberry in Nebraska. While we do not love each of these candidates, one thread is common among all of them - they can work together and when pushed, they do not side with radicals. Even Republican Jeff Fortenberry, who told Grover Norquist to shove his "no tax pledge" is someone who we think can help drive our nation in the right direction.

We have one last recommendation, today.

While it's true that nearly all of the legitimate polls are strongly favoring most of our candidates and positions, in referendums and races across the nation, this isn't just another election. We are in firm disagreement with some of our colleagues in the greater media about what might happen, after today. If any candidate is allowed to take office through an illegitimate win, much as we had in 2000 when the Supreme Court picked the winner, we are not sure of either the future of U.S. elections, or possibly even the nation.

This is a big deal. So… don't let your opportunity go to waste today.

Make your voice count. Vote. Now.