The fundamental message I take away from this is a) Money Talks b) 'Sure is easy to scare people into voting against their best interests. how else to 'Splain 1098 going down?
Much as the Dems in general and Obama in particular have deeply disappointed me, I still tend to see them as the best choice given that any third party vote typically equates to a plus in the R column. I'd absolutely love to see a meaningful third choice, but don't have high expectations given how powerful the two corporate parties an the mainstream media have become (and how throughly demented the electorate seem to be.)
The (perhaps) only reason I'd vote for the tall, thin, dark-skinned gentleman for president again is because the next one is likely to have a huge impact on the makeup of the next SCOTUS, and we can't deny how very important that is given the F'd up current batch of activist judges and how they've allowed big money to anally rape this country with their Citizens United "decision."