After living through the past eight years under the reign of terror by George Bush, I'm left questioning, how can the nation elect another Republican? As the general election gets underway and the two major party conventions unfold, the contrasts between the two candidacies becomes more and more clear. There have been seminal moments in each campaign, but ultimately, elections as important as the presidency must consider not just the persona of the candidate, but the ideology and direction of the party.

The Democratic Convention focused on dimishing the cleavages from the primary and uniting the party under Barack Obama, and with the assistance of the Clintons and some key party figures, was a success. The Republican strategy has been to disassociate McCain from the Bush administration, which has been significantly challenged this week with the impact of Hurricane Gustav occuring the very week of the Republican Convention. The situation in the Guf Coast region recalls the massively inadequate response of the Bush team during Hurricane Katrina, and no doubt the Democrats will bring up McCain's comments in 2005 about not allocation too much aid to the devastated Gulf area after Katrina.

In an apparent effort to allure disgruntled Hillary supporters to the Republican fold, McCain has selected Sarah Palin as his VP choice, despite the absence of any discernable contributions she brings to the table except an extra 'x' chromosome. This desperate attempt fails to take into consideration that voters aren't just voting for 'Obama' or 'McCain'. The effort to make elections about individual candidates fails to take into consideration that along with candidates comes an entire ideological history and vision for the future guided by these principles. The people the president chooses to surround him or herself by, and the appointees from the Supreme Court to the various bureaucratic agencies have an enduring impact on the country.

While there is antecdotal evidence that some unhappy Hillary people may vote for McCain, the majority understand what's at stake and will be supporting their party. The McCain team may have done itself a disservice by overestimating the impact of the disgruntled Hillary supporter effect. Surely those who supported Hillary will not abandon their principles and transfer their allegiance to McCain, who elected as his number two a woman who ranks low on issues important to most vomen voters.