Do you vote with your heart?

[busymom]

I've read a couple of votes posts over the last couple of days where people mention switching candidates because they got "goosebumps" when another candidate spoke....or because they are so angry with comments made by supporters of a candidate.

How much of your vote is influenced by your feelings?

[DesertFlower]

1. i voted for obama.

my head tells me hillary can do the job, but my gut tells me obama is the right person. i went with my gut.

[LittleClarkie]

2. It is influenced by my feeling for Kerry, and what I've read of Obama's book so far

It is probably more of a gut thing.

[BOSSHOG]

3. I guess I would have to answer in the affirmative but

not for the reason you might suspect. I passionately love our country and our constitution, ergo I passionately and with my heart vote against every republican on every ballot that comes before me.

[Frances]

4. I try to listen to my gut

I think my gut is a combination of feelings and thinking.

For example, in 2000, my gut told me that in spite of Bush's bipartisan persona, he would govern in a very authoritarian, non-rational way.

[Jed Dilligan]

5. Your mind can't tell anything

from what campaigning politicians say, so what better to follow than your heart?

[Proud2BAmurkin]

6. No.

[eleny]

7. I'm looking at their postions on issues

But my heart is being tugged today, too.

[DJ13]

8. I have to "feel" like I can trust a candidate to do whats needed..

...not whats popular.

I have to feel that person can be trusted to act in the nation's interest above their personal interest.

That candidate also must be able to communicate their ideas with clarity, and bring people on board with those ideas.

None of those things I mentioned do I feel I can apply to Hillary Clinton, so if thats your purpose, it wont work on me.

[Barack_America]

9. Quite a bit, actually.

I have a strong love for this country, and favorably look upon candidates who demonstrate that they feel the same. That their candidacies are not purely for personal gain.

But Carl Levin is my all-time favorite Democrat, so I can't be accused for falling completely for appealing rhetoric.

[THUNDER HANDS]

10. I'm an Obama supporter who's head told him the hearts of others

would be a good way to win.

[The Magistrate]

11. My What, Ma'am?

[sfam]

12. Head and heart for me...but a return of dialogue is more important than issues...

Really, all three candidates aren't that far on the issues. From a "head" perspective, the thing I yearned in 2004 and this election was a return of the middle - where members of both parties tried to form concensus on what was best for the country. This has been lost - I want it back.

So yeah, the speeches truly move me, but this "issue" or better said, "approach", is what sold me.

Incidentally, this is why a Bloomberg candidacy might get lots of those middle votes if polarizing figures end up winning on both sides. I don't know that Bloomberg wins, but he certainly would capture the middle in a Clinton-Romney match. I don't think he enters if either McCain or Obama gets the nomination.

[Kucinich4America]

13. No, we use the optical scanners here

voting with your heart sounds kind of bloody.

[enlightenment]

14. No.

Outgrew that years ago.

[Labors of Hercules]

15. I have no heart.

I am a cold, calculating, protectionist and environmentalist.

I will vote against politicians that pander to our profit driven economy instead of regulating it for the benefit of all.

[Blue-Jay]

16. I wonder what you're trying to insinuate....

and, no. I don't.

[busymom]

17. nothing...

This is an interesting question and I haven't quite come out with my own answer yet either....there is probably a little of both in it for me as well.

[Lucinda]

18. Head and gut voter. My heart is reserved for my friends and family,

puppies and kitties, natures beauty, and problems that need fixing.

My brain allows me to sort the wheat from the chaff, and my gut tells me when I've come to the right conclusion.

Someone able to connect via a great speech won't move me long term. I used to lecture about political spectacle and speeches, I know how they work.

[Raine]

19. 95% head 5% heart nt