Ladyjane,
Voting for one individual over another may still be workable on the local level, but I fear that it may not be all that workable on the national level anymore. The reason is that at this level the political party of the candidate makes at least as much difference as the candidate. That is, there's a lot of ideological baggage clinging to anyone who runs for federal office, mostly due to the time they've been in other politics before running for the federal slot.
People who pay little or no attention to politics or politicians except for once every four years (who I think may make up the majority of the 'undecideds') may not really grasp what I mean. They see just Kerry and just Bush. But, each one hews to a set of ideological beliefs honed and developed over a lifetime, and which are influenced by their respective parties to some extent. Vote for Bush, you'll get part of the conservative agenda. Vote for Kerry, you'll get the liberal agenda. To include which organizations get to benefit from having White House access etc. (NRA vs. Sarah Brady, for example).
What I'm saying is that I don't think you can separate the individual candidates from their ideologies and party links. So for me, I look less at the individual's traits and more towards what there party will likely pressure them to do once in office. I consider Bush to be okay but not great, I consider Kerry to be Clinton without the slick charm and bimbo eruptions, but even more important is I see Bush and his party as constitutional original-intentists and defenders of the 2nd amendment, while Kerry and his party strike me as anti-constitutional socialists (and whining, irrational, dishonest, power-mad children as well, but that's another story).
So for me it goes way deeper than this-guy-vs.-that-guy. All the political/ideological baggage has to be factored in too. And with the way the Dems have been behaving lately, I vote party line - not FOR Republicans, but AGAINST Democrats. For me it's a matter of keeping my enemies out of power. Would be nice to be able to just think about each candidate, but I think it goes way beyond that, at least for me.
Just my $.02.