I'd like to make a few points here myself if thats okay:
1. experience is overrated imho. I've long realized people liek Rumsfeld and Cheney were some of the most veteran-y veterans in Washington and look where they got us. No, instead what I look at is how the person spent their last couple of decades doing. IN other words, not how long or even what they did per se, but how they CHOSE TO SPEND their recent decades doing. Obama and Mccain both pass the test for me. Palin fucking does not. [i dont really know biden...]
2. What's more important than point #1? What the candidate and their campaign have done/said for the last couple days/months/few years. Thus I see Obama making speeches on racial unity, cons/lib unity, issues issues issues. Then I see McCain [his ads especially] and Palin making speeches on "i'm small town" "Obama is for sex ed for kiddies" "I'm right next to Russia" "Economy is fundanmently sound"
Do you see what I am saying? POint number 2 is not about whether you agree with what they stand for; it's about how the candidates present themselves and their issues for which they stand. If you argue "We must remain in Iraq for a couple more years to prevent a Saigon-style Bailout.gif" then that's fair, whether or not I agree. But if you say "Look, Hezbollah just said they prefer Obama win, that's their words not mine" or "I was a POW i was a POW, i was a POW" then you are a suck. You have a choice between saying rhetoric based on fighting clean, or rhetoric based on what the party chiefs/establisment prefer with mudslinging. Both kinds can be repeated adnauseum and eventually become cliched, but a world of difference in character, honesty, and bravery [ie. standing up against the temptation for mud] separates the two.
3. The most important issue is the issues. Obviously . In a fair world, in a perfect world, this and all elections would be decided on by whether or not you believe in small govt, or programs for poor mothers, etc etc. In 2004 and again in 2008, the Bush, the Hilary Clinton, and now the Mccain have been the worst culprit of violating this third point, in the time I've been follwoing US politics. [i'm not saying Dems dont do it either]