Caucusssssssing

Many thanks to our great democracy for allowing me to go out and have my mug stared at by other potential voters. This lets me know that people will do anything, overcome any obstacle, to vote.

Here in the great Pacific Northwest, we had a lot of Obama supporters and a few very perturbed-looking Hillary supporters. It was interesting to me how some of the Hillary supporters actually appeared angry with the rest of us - like, "How can you people be so stoopid?!" They didn't say it to our faces of course - that wouldn't be polite. But they also didn't argue their candidate's viability.

Which, of course, is just ever so persuasive. The not arguing part, I mean.

If you believe in your candidate, for God's sake say something. Don't just sit there and look at the rest of us like we're nuts. Maybe we are nuts, but ya know, be something other than condescending. We keep hearing from our fellow Democrats and a lot of Republicans that us Obama supporters are, you know, "cult-like." I suppose we are: it's such a change to listen to a politican that doesn't just tell you what you want to hear, that makes you think, "what can I do to help?".

So here it is, Obama with ten wins in a row, with Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania ahead. And Hillary is planning on going negative.

I love that: planning on going negative.

While I won't rehash everything all of her various surrogates have been saying about Mr. Obama, I will say that, for as far as his star has risen, hers has fallen further. It's depressing to watch. She has the potential to be an excellent president, as much as Mr. Obama does. She's right, she has more experience in Washington politics and how to get things done than he probably has. But she's sacrificing herself on the altar of political expediency, from some deep need to win at all costs.

Caucussing was amusing, though. the poor precinct captain was beside himself with fear - too many people! Something like eighty-five people in our precinct when the normal turnout would have been thirty-five. The whole district was jam-packed into a tiny middle-school auditorium, where no one can hear you think. "Use your number 2 voice indoors." I wish they had.

Now with Obama appearing to have an unstoppable momentum, growing with every victory (3-1 in Hawaii!), we may yet have a black president in the White House.

And not one damn minute too soon.

(MBM vs MWW) vs (MWM vs MWM vs MWM vs MWM)

So, it's coming up on Super Tuesday, the day we've all been waiting for, when we might finally find out which inappropriately-dressed individual gets chosen to be the next nominee from whichever party you feel most allegiance to.

I'm rooting for Lassie, but he refuses to run. (yes, Lassie was a male collie in drag)

Seriously, since Mr. Edwards has dropped out, my choice is Mr. Obama. Ms. Clinton, while certainly an acceptable candidate, is nonetheless less acceptable to me than Mr. Obama. If she gets the nom, I will vote for her, but I'm casting my first ballot in this delirious mess to the Black Guy, rather than the White Woman.

I don't believe he is necessarily more qualified to be the candidate. I don't believe that her years of experience are any more of a detriment to her abilities than his supposed lack of experience is to him. However (and this is partly where things get a little shallow), he's not another f**king Clinton, or another f**king Bush. He is, however, less beholden to corporate interests than I think she might be. He has never sat on the Board of Directors of WalMart (specifically, when they were waging their most successful campaign on labor in their history). He has not taken lobbyist money from big Pharma or big Healthcare in the quantities she has (though he's not far behind). He doesn't have advisors like Mark Penn or friends like Richard Mellon Scaife.

So, I'd rather have the Black Guy for president than the White Woman. And better either of them than the current crop of (mostly) old white men (in order of likelihood of being nominated):

Ron Paul thinks we should get out of Iraq as soon as possible, as well as out of NAFTA, GATT, and WTO. He also believes that Federal involvement in Education, Regulation, etc. is immoral, and that any form of income Tax is unconstitutional. So he doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell.

Mike Huckabee believes in the true word of God, i.e., the Bible, rather than all those other true words of God, the Talmud, the Koran, the Baghavad-Gita, the Bodhisattva, etc. He also thinks that the Consitution needs to be brought back to it's original form, i.e., more in line with the word of God, despite the fact that the Founding Fathers were violently opposed to such framing, and did everything they could to keep the word "God" out of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. But he also wants to help poor people, and Republicans don't like to be reminded that there are poor people in America. Little chance.

Mitt Romney is a Mormon and looks like a Ken Doll. As far as positions are concerned, he's for everything he used to be against. So there's still hope.

John McCain thought the war in Iraq was kind of a bad idea, but supports adding more troops to the fire zone. He opposed a tax cut for rich people until it came up for a vote again, so now he's going to vote to extend the tax cuts to rich people on past the deadline date of 2010, as a short-term stimulus to the economy. Say that again? Anyway, he's not opposed to the idea of having permanent bases in Iraq, or anywhere else in the middle east, if they'll have us. What he seems to be forgetting is that the Iraqis don't want us there, any more than the Lebanese, Syrians, Egyptians, etc., do. While he may not have been crazy before, he's looking crazier all the time. Even Mann Coulter is threatening to vote for Hillary if McCain is the nominee. But the people are voting for him, because they think he is a true old-guard Republican, no matter what the right wing of the right wing says.

How will it all turn out? I'm hoping for unity in the Democratic convention, and something like a political bloodbath at the Republican convention.

All in all, good TV.