Godard said the sexual is also political. It's a prophetic observation vis-a-vis this election, in which more matters of personal freedom are at stake than any time in recent memory. The point of this issue isn't advocacy (although if you care about preserving reproductive rights, your choice is pretty clear). It's to explore what people are talking about but perhaps not precisely addressing. That means we've assembled a chart comparing exactly where the candidates stand on ten major issues, commissioned an illustrator's diary about being jailed at the RNC, and pondered what it means to have someone on the ticket who could actually be described as "hot." To paraphrase vice-presidential debate moderator Gwen Ifill, we're trying to have it a few different ways: there are also Republican sex addicts, Votergasms and deep truths from a Texas philosopher named Kinky Friedman. Enjoy the issue, take our polls, and on November 2, get out of bed and vote. — Michael Martin