ToBeMe, you have hit on the exact reason last year's election turned into the circus that it did. The two major candidates were so similar on so many different levels, that there was never any clearly better choice for the job. Gore has no personality, and turned off voters with his holier than thou attitude, Bush comes off like an idiot and turned off voters who felt he was a puppet of the party. Both candidates came from political families, so there was a great deal of mistrust of them, since neither can really claim to have been "one of us". When it came down to it, most voters went with the party line rather than voting for the best candidate, since neither candidate really could be called the best man for the job. Even Nader could never really be considered a better man for the position, since the depth of his experience all involves consumer advocacy, with no international experience, and no experience in the backrooms and boardrooms where the real deals are made. Without a true leader as a candidate, how do you choose who should lead this country?