I have been torn, maybe no more

I have seen many articles, news reports and blog posts on Hillary Clinton as possible Secretary of State and I have been torn on this idea. On one hand, if Obama appoints her as SoS it will do a lot to heal the wounds that were caused during the primary fight, it may heal even some of the greater wounds within the Democratic party. Clinton does have a lot of international experience and she does seem to have some credibility on the international stage. She also is independent and will speak her mind thus giving Obama another point of view on international issues. I also understand the whole keeping your friends close and your enemies closer idea here as well. On the other hand, I am reminded of her unbending support of AIPAC, her support of our war in Iraq and her general hawkish foreign policy ideas, which all scare me quite a bit. I am also not sure her appointment to SoS continues Obamas claims to be bringing change to Washington and the general idea that he is supposed to represent the progressive arm of the Democratic party. This seems to be political business as usual. So I was split until I read this article. Apparently, Henry Kissinger is very in favor of Clinton getting the appointment of Secretary of State. And if someone who has been so conservative and hawkish in the foreign arena is supporting this maybe it is not the right choice. I also wonder if the talents and skills of Clinton are better served as Secretary of Health and Human Services or as a vocal and forceful voice in the Senate. I know Obama is trying to reunite the Democratic party after a rough primary season and I know he is trying to show that he is a true change agent by changing up the way in which Cabinet members are decided upon, but at what cost? Does an appointment of Clinton as Secretary of State on the heels of the Rahm Emmanuel appointment show that Obama may not represent the progressive arm of the Democratic party as much as we hoped? I guess I and we will have to wait and see what the rest of his Cabinet appointments are and how he acts as a President because as we all know actions speak louder than words.

The obligatory election results post

So as everyone else that I read, I am very happy that Obama won last night. I have been fighting a sinus infection and so I was able to stay up till about 10 or so here which was late enough to know that Obama had won, to see McCain's concession speech, which I thought was very gracious and well done, but not quite late enough to see the Obama victory speech. As I watched the results last night, I followed the national vote heavily of course, but I also really wanted to see what would happen in my former state of North Carolina. I knew that Elizabeth Dloe was up for re-election and that the Governor's race was a tough fight as well. I had also heard that Obama might have a chance of winning NC as well, which would be a bit of shock. Well, Dole lost her seat, YAY!!!!! Bev Perdue, the Democrat, won the Governor's race which means they will continue to have a Democratic governor, something they have had for the past few years. And finally even at this hour (9:33 CDT) the state of NC has not been declared for either McCain or Obama, this seems huge to me. According to MSNBC, the vote is about 50-50, but in reality according to the NC Election Board, the vote is 49.7% for Obama and 49.38% for McCain with all of the precinct's results in. So this is also very exciting to me that NC could really go to Obama. I know he doesn't need NC as he has won the electoral votes easily, but it is still awesome that a state that is traditionally very red is now turning at least purple if not blue. So congrats to the voters of NC for voting for your best interest instead of voting based upon race or fear.

In honor of the debates tonight...

I give you the Presidential Battle Rap.



Now of the debates were like this, I might actually give a shit, but they are just vague monotonous bullshit with no real interesting points.

A blue NC?!?

I am so excited to see this article where it appears that my former home state, NC, may not be such a lock for McCain in this election. It appears that Obama is outspending McCain, has more people on the ground in NC than McCain and hence has a very close election in a state that has not voted Democrat since 1976. Remember this is also the state Jesse Helms represented and Elizabeth Dole still represents in Congress This just shows that even the areas and states where Republicans have traditionally dominated are in play for this election. This election is becoming more interesting and important everyday. I just hope that Obama can hold onto NC and many of the other traditionally Republican areas and win this election like we need him to do. That and I hope that Shrub does not shut down this election which also seems like it could be possible especially if the Republicans are struggling like they appear they could.

Chimpy on mute

I am waiting for the season premiere of Criminal Minds to come on and they said it would be seen in its entirety and it damn well better be or I am going to hunt someone down. Anyway, so Chimpy is on mute and I can't help but think, I know he is probably trying to justify why his cronies who are losing money hand over fist need this 700 billion dollar bailout, that this is the only way to save the economy, but what about the non-corporate world many of us could use a bailout too. Maybe we should just follow the bible like these fundies always want us to do and forgive all individual debt. All debt is supposed to be forgiven every fifty years according to the Torah so why not start this year. All individual debt is forgiven and we go on with our lives. Oh yeah, that is not part of the Bible that the fundies conveniently forget about like the other ideas that are inconvenient for them like the laws of Kashrut, not coveting your neighbors wife and the prohibition against murder (the death penalty or this current war come to mind here). And only the corporate world needs to be bailed out, how could I be so stupid and think that maybe helping individuals get back on their feet may help our economy a helluva lot more than rewarding irresponsible corporations and investors?

Is this supposed to be some way of getting the public to demand a bailout since Congress does not seem to be just laying down and letting BushCo. ram the plan down their throats?

Political Fallacy

I saw the image above at Mock, Paper, Scissors and it got me thinking. My first thoughts were, why does McCain need so many cars and homes for just he and Cindy? Why do they need a pick-up truck? Why does he need three golf carts, one I understand maybe, but three? So I went through the usual liberal thoughts on what a rich asshole McCain is and he is and I will never ever ever vote for him.

But then I started to think about Obama. We get this image that he is a regular guy, that he is not a rich asshole. He only has one home and only one car. Hmmmmmm.... well maybe they only have one car because Michelle only needs one car for her and the two girls, OK. And they only have one home, in Chicago, because, well, Michelle and the girls live there and that is Barak's primary home. But then where does he live when he is supposed to be in D.C. for Congress and how does to he get to work? Ya see, we think of Obama as this regular guy, he does not have a lot of homes and cars like McCain, but he still probably has a condo in D.C. or the surrounding area. Maybe he rents this condo and maybe he owns it, but either way, he has a residence in DC. And where ever he lives, I am relatively certain that he is not taking the bus or Metro to work. So either he has a car in DC, he rents a car or the Congress provides a car for his use, but then who is paying for this car if he doesn't own one and who is paying for his residence in DC if he doesn't own one?

We like to think of our presidential candidates as just like us. We like to think that they have jobs like us and houses like us and cars like us, but this is simply untrue. In order to be involved in politics on the national level, you have to be wealthy. You have to have the money to put into getting your campaign started. You have to have the money to keep yourself going if your campaign struggles and supposedly you should have the money to be able to afford to go to these fundraisers and such. So you have to be wealthy. It bothers me when we try to think of candidates as anything other than wealthy. While we struggle to pay bills and many are struggling with mortgage payments, neither of these candidates has these issues. Maybe Obama grew up in a family that struggled, but he has not had these same issues in many years. So lets face the fact that neither of these men are working class and both are in the upper tax bracket and worry more about their policies and not their financial situations.

Into the scrum I go

I am finally getting into the fray about Palin. Up to this point, I really didn't feel like I needed or wanted to do this as so may other lefty bloggers were doing it better than I could have, but I decided to put up a post about this article. McCain is defending Palin and saying that this vetting controversy is "faux media scandal designed to destroy the first female Republican nominee for vice president" and that the media is just an ol' boys club that is trying to destroy Palin. I am not so sure I can totally disagree about the mainstream media being male centered and male run, but so is the GOP. Just because you now have a female VP nominee, does not mean you no longer an old boys club. We still live in a patriarchal society where men are valued over women and a female VP does not seem to be as impressive to me as the fact that Democrats had a viable presidential candidate. I did not see any females even mentioned for the Republicans when it came time for possible presidential nominees. McCain is also saying that Palin is subject to gender bias in the media, yeah no shit Sherlock. I didn't hear him speaking out when Clinton was viciously attacked by the media and by other candidates. Where was McCain standing up for women earlier in the presidential campaign? Am I supposed to believe that if Clinton had become the presidential nominee or even the VP nominee McCain would not have been launching all kinds of sexist ads and comments toward her? Of course not, he would have been firing as many dirty shots as he could.

The other issue, of course, that keeps coming up is the lack of experience for Palin. Former Governor of Massachusetts Jane Swift is now being quoted as saying that Palin is more prepared to be the president of the U.S. than Obama. And on what planet is this women living? How does six years as the mayor of Wasilla and four years as governor of Alaska give her that much experience? Although Alaska is a large state geographically, it is one of the least populous states and really how do you compare a short span as a governor to the same amount of time working in Washington as a Senator? Where is Palin's foreign policy experience? What is her policy on healthcare, energy, the Iraq War, or Social Security? McCain is not a young man, knowing her views on these issues will most likely become very important.

UPDATE: Sorry I gave Gov. Palin more years as a Governor than I should have. She has had only two years, not four.

I guess this was to be expected

Today John Edwards endorsed Obama for president. There was much speculation since he left the democratic primaries about who he would endorse, Clinton or Obama. There seemed to be some thoughts that of course he would endorse Obama as he and the Clintons had issues in the past and that he was a change candidate so was more like Obama than Clinton. Also, it seems as though it is a certainty that Obama will win the Democratic nomination so this seemed like a good time for Edwards to endorse Obama as he is not really going out of a limb here. I just wish I felt more comfortable with one of the candidates, whether it is Clinton or Obama or someone else, Nader does nothing for me either.

FYI: Not all women vote the same

According to this article, there is a deep divide among feminists over who should be the Democratic candidate, surprising isn't this. I mean don't all women vote the same, don't they all share the same brain and the same thoughts, well don't they. Oh yeah that is right, feminists are people and people have different thoughts from each other. Just as not all men vote the same, then not all women will vote the same. And if not all women will vote the same, than that means that not all feminists will vote the same. This is yet another article which tries to make everything black and white in this Democratic campaign. Apparently, since there are a variety of different opinions among feminists on the blogoshere and in the main stream media there is this huge divide. The feminists will forever be divided and if we do not unite soon, than our vote will be meaningless in all future elections ever according to this article. This article does nothing, but talk about how the two sides are basically warring. There is even a quote where Clinton supporter Gloria Feldt, former president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, says, "We're squandering an opportunity to be seen as a voting bloc that turns elections. Unless we are working together, in a strategically thought-out effort to vote in our own best interests, we are in danger of never having another election where people will say women can determine the outcome." Now I hope this is taken out of context and I am sure there was more to it than this, but really is this article and this quote really saying that if women do not all vote for Obama or all for Clinton, than every politician can forget about the female vote forever. I don't think anyone who discounts 50% of the population has much of a chance anyway. The final thing I can say is that there is a lot of worry about if the opponent's supporters will support the candidate even if it isn't their candidate, well I am not seeing many feminist voting for McCain, so it is not like he will get these votes. Sure there is a possibility that Clinton supporters (I am sorry to make this conclusion, but I just can't seem to find a way for Obama to lose at this point) will not vote in the general election and that would hurt Obama and we as feminist and feminist supporters (remember I have issues calling myself a feminist) need to vote for whoever the Democratic candidate is against McCain, but still McCain is not getting the feminist vote anyway. So yes, there are differing opinions in the feminist movement, but so what. Not all men vote the same, so why can't women have differing opinions as well.

A preview of what's to come

I have no idea if this has been reported outside of NC, but here it is a bit of a big deal and really shows where this presidential campaign is going this summer and into next fall. The NC Republican committe will begin to air ads starting Monday which equate Barak Obama and Rev. Wright with two current NC Democrats who are running for governor who have both endorsed Obama. The ad shows a bit of Rev. Wrights speaking and then says,"Now, Bev Perdue and Richard Moore endorse Barack Obama. They should know better. He's just too extreme for North Carolina." So, they are slamming Obama and the two gubernatorial candidates, linking them all to Rev. Wright. Possibly the worst part of this is the that both McCain and the national Republican party have asked the NC Republican party to pull the ads and the state party has refused. Now, I guess the McCain has no really pull, but if the national party wanted them to truly pull the ads, I would think that they would be able to threaten funding or something, but in reality they have no real interest in the state party to pull the ads, just to make a statement so that if it backfires they can claim they told the state party not to do it. See the whole article here.

This is the way this campaign will now start to go, I predict (going out on a limb ain't I). The state and local parties will start the mud flinging and maybe McCain will object at least in the media, but behind the scenes he will encourage them to do this. It allows him to keep his hands clean and yet the mud is still flung. This also allows for the national Republican party to do some negative campaigning, but again really leave it up to the local level especially in states like those in the South, which aren't really friendly to the Democrats anyway. This campaign is really going to get nasty and it is going to get nasty quick from the Republicans. Whether it is the first women candidate or the first African-American candidate, they will go either sexist or racist, but it is coming and when it does, it is going to be totally and utterly disgusting. I am so sick of American politics right now, but I guess until the revolution comes and we overthrow the current system, I will just have to find ways to keep fighting within the current system.

Are we that open minded?

I saw this poll in the local paper initially and when the link from the paper didn't work, I had to find the actual poll itself, which is probably better anyway. This poll says that here in NC, 91 percent of those surveyed do not think that race is a factor in voting, 79 percent do not think that a person's gender should make a difference in voting and 66 percent do not think age is a factor in how they will vote. But, and here is where it gets interesting, 63 percent thought that people they knew would not vote for a female candidate, 54 percent said that they knew people who would not vote for a black candidate and 44 percent said they knew people who would not vote for a candidate who is "too old". This second set of stats are the most interesting to me, so people say that they would not let a person's age, gender or race play a part in their personal vote, but they know people who would let these same factors play a part. This seems like a case where people do not want to admit that they have an issue with a candidate and so they do not admit to it, but when they are given an out like "do you know anyone who would vote this way" they are more honest. Are people really that open minded? Are they really ignoring what should be external factors to how well a person could do the job of being a president? Or are they just saying they are ignoring these factors just so that they do not appear to be a "bad person"? And even if they really are voting based upon a person's record or other factors other than gender, age or race, why are they not telling those around them that there are better reasons to vote for or against someone than such superficial reasons? The final problem I have is that, I do not believe people are really putting these factors aside as the mass media coverage has focused almost solely on the candidates age, gender and age, so how can you say that this is not a factor for you, when that is all you read about? Or maybe they are like me and they only marginally pay attention to the mass media and get information from other sources and really are trying to base their decisions on more relevant factors. One can only hope.

How much do you think mine would sell for?

A few days ago, I read in this article in the local paper online that a college student had put her vote in the NC Democratic primary up for sale on Ebay. Now we all know this is a crime and she had to take it down, but that was not her point. Her point was that this Democratic campaign has gotten to be ridiculous. The candidates are fighting for each vote and the fighting is getting nasty among not only the candidates, but also their supporters as well. She also feels as though both candidates are just sale people selling a product anymore and making promises that they may not keep. As she said, "On top of that...the Obama crowd on campus expects her vote because she is a Muslim from a Palestinian family. Clinton's supporters think a woman would automatically choose their candidate. 'I was thinking this race has turned into a bidding war." She stared the bidding at 15 cents and by the time she had to take it down, the bidding was up to $11.50. The state has not said they will press charges which I am glad to hear, but this does make me wonder what my vote would go for. I am a white male and isn't this the exact constituency that both candidates are fighting for?

Is it time for another debate?

Thanks to Google Reader which I found because FranIAm mentioned it, so thanks go to her as well, I have now been able to keep up on local and national news much easier. I noticed in the local paper that apparently there is the possibility that there will be another Democratic presidential debate, here in the great state I currently reside in, NC. According to this article, there is a possibility of a debate on April 27 here in NC. At one point, I would have been annoyed, another debate, shit, haven't we had enough of these already. But at this point, I have some very selfish reasons for wanting this debate to happen. First, I am still undecided about who I would vote for and so it would be good for me to see another debate to help me to make my mind up for sure about who I should vote for. Second, although this may be unlikely, I would like to say that I might actually get to be in the audience for this debate, especially as they are discussing this debate to happen in either Raleigh or Charlotte. If it happened in Raleigh, I would try as hard as I could to get a ticket to go to the debate, Charlotte on the other hand is a bit far for me to drive, but still it would help with my decision making process. So I really hope this happens.

Now onto my other point about this debate, Clinton has already agreed to this debate, while Obama is not sure this debate would work into his schedule. He has said that he had proposed a debate before April 22nd, but that Clinton declined that timing. I am tired of the little fights between the two of them. I want them to just agree to handle this like adults and point out their weaknesses, but stop the attacks on each other and start to attack McCain more. So what does this have to do with a debate? Well, maybe if they had a debate, they could point out these differences and stop firing at each other from afar.

I know that in many ways this debate does not make total sense, there are only a few states left to hold primaries and for each campaign actually making campaign stops may serve their purposes better than having a nationally televised debate in which only a few states' voters would really have a vested interest, but if this is to be the presidential candidate for our party, shouldn't we all want to see them make their stands more known and to explain their differences? Also, isn't this a good venue in which both of them can point out all of McCain's faults and he has many, so stop the stalling already and have the damn debate. Oh yeah and please let us commoners have a chance to get tickets to see the show.

Quick political post

I seem to be waffling back and forth on this whole democratic primary. I think I am coming to support Obama, but I still wish that Edwards was in this campaign, even as a VP candidate, especially Obama's VP candidate. This would help me feel better about voting for him in many ways. But I think that he is probably the better candidate. This was sparked by a great post by Dr. Monkey that says why I support Obama in many ways better than I can say it, so just go over to his site and read this. DCup also inspired me toward this position with this great post as I think that Obama has been less negative than Clinton.

This being said, I will not take my Edwards '08 banner from my site as this is still who I want for the next election.

Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing

My apologies to the Bard, but that is how I am beginning to view this political season. I am tired of the sniping back and forth between Obama and Hillary. I am tried of everyday turning on Keith Olberman and hearing that yet again, these two opponents are launching cheap shots at each other. I am tired of hearing that one of their camps says something negative about the other and then tries to retract it. Case in point the whole plagiarism "scandal" that surrounded Obama and Deval Patrick. Sure Obama stole some of Patrick's ideas and sure he did not always credit him and yes that is the definition of plagiarism, but both camps have stolen ideas and phrases from previous campaigns and other candidates. Hell, if they did not steal ideas from other candidates and pass them off as their own, there would be no reason for us to vote for anyone as none of these candidates are that original, they jut steal from others what sounds good or what will get them voted into office. But I am also tired of the Obama camp launching criticism against Clinton for racism when he and his camp has been sexist, so neither of them are in the right in this instance. I cannot stand Huckabee or McCain, but at least their differences have been over policy and have not resorted to personal attacks. There may not be a lot of differences between Clinton and Obama, but surely there are some. For one thing, I think they differ on gun control. Obama has said that he is a firm believer in the second amendment and that people have every right to bear arms, this was right after the NIU shootings too, so this is very recent and after very tragic circumstances. While what I can find seems to indicate that Clinton is much more in line with my thoughts on gun control of trying to get rid of them or at least make it significantly harder to get guns. If I were part of the Clinton camp I would have been screaming my gun control policies from a fucking mountaintop. Fuck the NRA, they aren't going to vote for you anyway so come out and talk about your gun control policies, unless they aren't that different from Obama's.

I am tired of the fighting among Obama supporters and Clinton supporters. I have seen horror stories of Obama supporters yelling down Clinton supporters at caucuses, but Clinton supporters have been as vehement in attacking Obama supporters from what I can see. The real danger is not whether Obama and Clinton like each other after this campaign, it is whether the Democratic party likes itself after this campaign. If we become so split that we cannot reconcile, we do nothing more than hand McCain and the Republicans this election. The Repubs have plenty of time to help to fix some of these wounds where if this Democratic infighting goes on all the way to August and the convention we have basically 2-3 months to pull a splintered party back together. As supporters of our candidates, we need to show support without demeaning or belittling the other candidate, the Republicans do that enough without our help.

Finally, I am tired of feeling like at this point, I am deciding between the lesser of two evils. At first I supported Kucinich and if he hadn't wanted Ron Paul as his VP and had he not seemed to go a bit overboard, in my own eyes, at debates about attacking the rest of the candidates, I might have been able to support him, but then I couldn't anymore. So then I decided to support Edwards, yeah I knew this was a possible lost cause already as was Kucinich, but I wanted to vote my conscious. I thought that Edwards might be able to fight longer than it turned out he could, might have been able to really affect some of the voters and make the debates about the issues and not personal attacks between Obama and Clinton, but alas he dropped out. So now I am left with two candidates who I don't really like all that much, but who I flip flop back and forth between who I dislike less. Each of them has their issues with me and so, as a progressive, I am tired of the sound and fury of this campaign especially as it signifies nothing.

The rollercoaster of politics begins

I have been thinking about this post since probably Tuesday, but did not get into it and really get a chance to explore my thoughts till now. On Tuesday and even prior to that, I really thought that Huckabee was trying to set himself up as the vice presidential nomination. He knew that he could not actually beat McCain or out raise Romney, but he wanted to keep fighting. Then Romney decided to stop his campaign and I now wonder if this doesn't take the wind out of Huckabee's sails. He is now trying to fight McCain who has a large delegate lead and now that most of the south has voted, it doesn't seem that Huckabee can win that many more delegates. I know he has said he will continue to fight on and I know that Dobson has thrown his support behind Huckabee, but can he really catch up to McCain? I highly doubt it, so I am still thinking that he is trying to get the VP nod, which helps both McCain and Huckabee really. Huckabee scares the shit out of me and so even him as a VP scares me. So now McCain can just start to gear up for taking shots at the Democrats as he has no real competitor.

This leads me to the Democrats, I think we are possibly screwed here. Sure I said that we should have no problems beating any Republican this time around, but I am not so sure against McCain who has been able to have a great bit of pull with the independent vote and if he can get Huckabee on the ticket well then he has a legitimate shot at the conservative vote as well. Houston, we may have a problem. This continuing battle between Obama and Clinton has the potential for weakening the the Democratic party and the potential candidate. McCain does not have to attack either of them, he just has to sit back and watch them beat the shit out of each other.

The longer this nomination is undecided and it looks like it could go all the way to the Democratic Convention, the nastier this fight will have to become as they both try to gain the upper hand. Howard Dean has said that the two of them need to sit down in a room and hash this out, where one decided to concede the nomination. Why would either of them do this? They both have about the same number of delegates and the same numbers in the popular votes, so why should they give up? Sure they could run as one ticket, but then who is the president and who is the VP? I am relatively certain that neither of them wants to take a back seat to the other at this point. So it goes to the convention and now the nomination is decided by the super delegates. This would piss me off and should piss everyone off, the vote of the people does not decide our candidate, it is decided by party officials as to who they want to run. It is decided in non-smoke filled rooms, but probably behind closed doors. I am not saying I would not vote for whoever the Democratic candidate is because I would. I will vote for whoever wins the nomination, but the fact that my vote and the votes of millions of other people do not count in the nomination process and only the votes of public officials count, many of whom have said that they will vote however they want and will not follow the will of the people from the states that they represent. This is no better than Bush stealing the election on the account of electoral votes even though he lost the popular vote. I will still vote for whoever the super delegates pick, but I will not be happy about it. This needs to be decided by the voters and not public officials. And if it is decided by the public officials, how can we count on the fact that the huge numbers of people who have been voting in this primary season will actually continue to come out and vote in November when they begin to think that their vote doesn't matter anyway.

Yet again the Democratic party is weakened as I know that if McCain can figure out a way to get the conservative vote whether it is by hook or by crook, they will come out and vote. And now he has all of this time on his hands to kiss their asses and get their votes. I want the Democrats to win, I need the Democrats to win, but more I need the Democratic party to figure out a way to keep from giving away another election.

Political thoughts

I found this on Blue Gal and had to post it.



I have seen this one on many sites and also wanted to post this.



No, these are not endorsements of Obama, but I have yet to see anything this entertaining for Hilary and so I didn't post those. My vote when I get a chance to vote which will be later in this year, I think May, is that I will follow my conscience and vote for who I still think would be the best president, Edwards. I want to thank the Cunning Runt for reinforcing this thought of voting my conscience and not who the media thinks I should vote for in this post.

Survivor: Presidential Island

We join this season's survivor already in progress. We have also lost the geezer and 911 in this tribe. Who is left; the millionaire, the military veteran and the man who eats fried squirrels. It would seem that the vet is going to win his tribe's contests and survive, but the millionaire will still try to steal the contests. Although the millionaire may not be able to outwit or outplay his opponents, he might be able to outlast. The vet should be able to outplay the other two and the squirrel eater, well he will just have to pray to his God that somehow he can outlast which is doubtful.

Now on the other tribe, we have lost the short man with the attractive wife, the talker, Dudd, the Latino who somehow in a historic election was never able to capitalize on this and the fan favorite, the man from North Carolina. So now we are left with the black man versus the woman. The black man would not, on first glance, be able to outplay, outwit or outlast the woman, but he just seems to hang in there and has a lot of support. He has charm that the one who vote you off the island like, so he will survive till the end. The woman is trying to outwit, outplay and outlast the man. Who will win? We will have to see.

Then onto the finale. The final contest, where we find out who will win the ultimate prize, no not a million dollars, but the right to govern the United States of America. (I would prefer a million dollars to be honest.)

She kissed women

This is the obligatory political post and it may really annoy some people and I may even alienate some of the handful of readers, but anyway...

As I was driving home from work today and it is a short drive, I heard on NPR them talking about the campaign. They were talking about Hillary and how she has not given up on Nevada even though it appears that Obama should win this state. They noted that she went to Las Vegas today and went door-to-door, she even kissed women, etc. I really lost it after the whole kissed women thing. What the hell is that supposed to mean, she even kissed women? Is this supposed to show that she is more available? Is this supposed to show that she is "down with the Latino culture"? Is this supposed to appeal to the lesbian vote, what the hell does it matter if she kissed women, there was no mention of what she did with the men, did she kiss them as well? I am pretty sure that it would be just as appropriate to kiss a man on his cheek as a woman within Latino culture. So what the hell did that mean?

This led me to what has bugged me about this campaign, the whole idea of the women versus the black man and that is exactly how this campaign is being portrayed. I can deal with this from the MSM as I expect this from them, but it seems that the progressive, liberal blogosphere, the same one I am a part of, is falling into this same trap. I heard an interview with Elizabeth Edwards where she said something to the effect of, isn't that why we fought for civil rights and the rights of women, so that gender and ethnicity do not matter. Yes, it is in her and her husband's best interest for the race to be more about the issues. I am biased in this, but if the issues were raised I think that John Edwards may do better. I would support an Obama presidency, but he is inexperienced and another four years would be good for him, in my opinion, so that he could get more foreign policy experience. And I do believe that Clinton is too much of the same old DC politics and is too tied to big corporations, more so than the other two, but I would support her in a presidential run. The real issue for me is that we hear very little about what the candidates really think about the issues and too much about their gender or their ethnicity and the history of this election. If Edwards cannot win, and it is starting to look like he can't, I want to see an Obama/Clinton or vice versa (I don't care which) Democratic ticket, but in my opinion that wouldn't happen and that is the biggest shame of it all.

Oh by the way, I am also super annoyed because the NC primary is in May sometime, yes I will still vote, but really who will be left, the race will be almost if not totally decided by then. We need a national primary where all of the states have the same primary date or we need a regional primary system where over a set of five different dates, ten states each have their primaries. There is too much importance put on Iowa and New Hampshire and not enough on those states like NC who have really late primaries.