I've always voted Republican.  I've been a Republican for as long as I can remember, so I think this election will be the first time I don't vote Republican as a matter of fact. Probably George Bush is what is making me not vote Republican — he really, I feel, let our party down a little bit? well, maybe not a little bit — I really feel he did let our party down in terms of the way he's been executing policy. In fact, I think that Dean is more of a Republican that Bush is.  If you read the Republican oath, it talks about a number of things like sound monetary policy and equal rights for all and when I think about who that represents, that says Howard Dean to me, not George Bush.

I think it was that he seems to be a common sense candidate. I mean everything he says seems to make sense to me. A lot of things a lot of the other candidates say don't seem to make sense to me — it seems like they're running for office while Howard Dean is sort of trying to run a campaign to try to be the leader of the nation and that, to me, is what we really need. We really need a leader, not a politician. 

I like his sensible gun laws stance, I like his adoption of a woman's right to choose? I like his wanting to build the economy back up from the grassroots, from the farms upwards as opposed to from the dot-coms downwards.  I think that he's got a really good handle on what it's going to take to fix the country, rather than just put a band-aid on it. 

I like the grassroots aspects of Dean's campaign.  I actually like the idea of getting as many people involved as possible in the campaign as opposed to getting as much money involved as possible in the campaign.  I mean he's getting a lot of money involved collaterally, but I like the idea of an inclusive campaign because that's what politics should be about — including the most people possible, not the most dollars possible.

Yeah, I'd like to get involved any way I can? I'm very interested in getting involved in the campaign.  I'm not sure what my individual skill set will bring, but for example, I'm thinking about getting involved as a blog moderator to try to help people get issues out. I think that's one of the actual strengths of the Dean campaign is he's not afraid to talk about the issues. He doesn't seem to be ducking any questions or avoiding any issues.  I think that a blog or any kind of other communication mechanism that I can help participate in that will get the issues out so we can talk about them is going to be not only helpful to Dean, but helpful to us as citizens as well.  This is the first time I've actually wanted to get involved with a political campaign in a presidential election. I think that part of Dean's magnetism is that he's encouraging us to get along; he's encouraging us to get involved, by just being who he is. You want to get on the bus with Howard Dean.

I think if I had to sum up? you know, when [my friend] Bob first brought up the Switch2Dean, it kind of turned me off a little bit because I'm not really switching from anything? I mean I've always been a Republican, I continue to be a Republican and I'm also going to vote for Howard Dean in the next election, so I think it's less of a switch than it is a realization that, really, as Howard Dean's website says — let's put aside all this partisan politics and let's work on fixing the country because we need to fix? we need to do something different than what we've been doing now and that's one of the very attractive things about Howard Dean.

If I was trying to convince a friend who is a Republican, I'd tell them to go to www.DeanForAmerica.com

and click on policy and see what Dean says, because I think once people read about and learn about what Howard Dean stands for, they're going to be surprised at how close to a true, what I consider a true Republican, feel they get from Howard Dean.   I don't mean to insult Howard Dean by saying that, but I do think that he is the common sense candidate and I think that once people go to the website, take a look at what Howard Dean stands for, they will find that? I believe they will find that they stand for a lot of the same things that we, as Republicans, want to stand for, for this country. In fact I do get a lot of questions from Republicans, especially wearing this [Howard Dean] button. They ask me a number of questions. They bring up Republican/Democrat issues and I really think that's not? I mean I tell them it's not a Republican/Democrat election, or rather, I don't think it should be. Again, I just encourage them to take a look at what the candidates are standing for rather than what political party they belong to.  Go to the website, go to DeanForAmerica.com, take a look at the policies and put on whatever hat you want — put on a Republican hat, put on a Democrat hat, but go and take a look at who you want to be the next leader of this country and I encourage them, especially my fellow Republicans, to put aside the? I will say this -- you don't have to film this if you don't want to, but the Republican oath, if you read it, if you read the Republican oath, it doesn't say anything about what happens in the bedroom or when life begins or, you know, it doesn't say anything about whether some wacko should be able to buy an Uzi. It talks about national pride, it talks about sound monetary policy and it talks about equal rights for all and that's what Howard Dean stands for. Those things that I think are important about being an American — that's what Howard Dean stands for.

My name is Garrett.  I'm a business consultant and I'm taking back my country.