Obama '08?

dyslexia wrote:

vote early
vote often
vote kucinich.

Alas I cannot, so today i will vote Obama.

I'd love to get your person-on-the-spot take, too, after you vote.

sozobe wrote:

dyslexia wrote:

vote early
vote often
vote kucinich.

Alas I cannot, so today i will vote Obama.

I'd love to get your person-on-the-spot take, too, after you vote.

vera interesting here in New Mexico; we have a not primary/not caucus; It's called a caucus but you go to the polling place and cast a ballot which in turn elects a delegate rather than an actual caucus.

I definitely don't want the Kicky scenario, where Obama does worse than expected.

Hiya Vietnamnurse. Yeah, I don't think it's going to be over tonight either. I actually don't want it to be since I think Obama finishing a close second overall -- lagging by 100 or so delegates -- is much more likely than Obama taking a commanding lead. (And I definitely don't want the Kicky scenario, where Obama does worse than expected.)

Wow, JPB!

I mean it's pretty darn likely that Obama will win Illinois anyway, but that's still cool!

sozobe wrote:

Wow, JPB!

I mean it's pretty darn likely that Obama will win Illinois anyway, but that's still cool!

Proportional delegates. That is what got me to vote for Clinton, I wanted a republican ballot to vote for Paul, but I felt the need to get Clinton as many delegates as I could.

Lola wrote:

Today's Super Tuesday and we're all psyched. We've fallen in love with a stranger. He seems to have it all.........chrisma, charm and good looks, except for those unfortunate ears. And his wife's cool too.

The press is head over heals. They have worked us up into a frenzy. The ad time is hot tonight. It's change we can believe in. We're back to the sixties and we're wearing a pair of those modernized Kork Ease shoes. Aren't we cute?

But who is this man? Have we forgotten to notice that we barely know him? Is being in love a good reason to nominate a candidate for President of the United States?

Well, he's been endorsed. Oprah of day time TV, the modern day reality soaps says she wants this man to be president. And whatever Oprah wants, Oprah gets. Her wisdom is the last word. Robert De Niro agrees.

And the Kennedys....the ones that glitter, that is. Teddy, in the voice of a santimonious preacher down by the river on revival day says Obama will be ready on day one.

We seem to have forgotten that Teddy drove his car off the Dyke Bridge on Chappaquiddick Island and left his young female companion for dead. But surely he's learned his lesson. He pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident after causing injury and he was sentenced to two months in jail, which was suspended. Youthful indiscretion.

And the young people....isn't it great to see them politically active at last? We're so proud of our above average offspring. Shall we follow them anywhere they lead us? We learned long ago that if it feels good, we should do it. The faint words of our parents ring distantly in our ears. "Wait to get married. If you're really in love, he'll be there in four years." It was silly advice at the time.

The results tonight will tell us something about whether we're impulsive enough to ignore caution for the thrill of a new found love. Maybe we should wait and learn something about who this man is. Where has be been and where will he lead us? But it's not up to me. I live in Oregon.

Oh well, at least he's not a religious fanatic.

FreeDuck talked about one kind of dismissal, this is another kind. That if you support Obama it's because you're in loooove. Allied to the cult thing but its own thing.

And every bit as patronizing and trivializing.

Lola wrote:

But who is this man? Have we forgotten to notice that we barely know him?

Speak for yourself.

Sein politisches Programm lässt sich mit den Worten „change", „vision" und „dream" zusammenfassen. Das ist mehr Programm, als G.W. Bush in zwei Amtszeiten umgesetzt hat.

Here instead is an account of what I would be thinking if I were voting in the Democratic primary in my original home state of California tomorrow:

- On domestic and economic and environmental policy, it's a wash. The Clinton and Obama positions are similar to each other and different from any Republican's. Some people think there is a huge difference in their health-care proposals. Having seen administrations come and go, I am absolutely certain that the difference between Clinton's and Obama's stated objectives in 2008 matters much, much less than what either of them will be able to get through the Congress in 2009 and afterward. Thus: an important distinction in domestic policy is which candidate will bring in a larger bloc in Congress to work with.

- On foreign policy, Clinton and Obama actually do differ, and I agree with him more than with her. He (like Al Gore) was against invading Iraq before it happened; she was for it. He (like Jim Webb) opposed the infamous Kyl-Lieberman amendment, which at the time was undeniably an attempt to legitimize military action against Iran; she voted for it. (Obama, to his discredit, failed to show up to cast his No vote, but his position was not in doubt.) He has criticized the current flat-earth idiotic US policy toward Cuba; she has defended it (as Fareed Zakaria has pointed out in a strong recent essay). I understand the argument that Sen. Clinton has to take these positions to maintain her "credibility" and appearance of strength. To me that matters less than that she keeps voting in what I consider the wrong way. Thus: the positions and "mindsets" differ, and and I like his better.

- On style and governing philosophy, she is for incremental policies and incremental politics -- "experience" and "competence" - based on the underlying belief that Republican obstructionism makes nothing else possible. Not even for a dreamer like Obama. He obviously is trying for something more -- as Bill Clinton was in 1992, when I preferred him to an incomparably more experienced and time-tested President.

- On straight electability, just unknowable. Given that everyone in the country already knows her and a large minority say they don't like her, a narrow victory seems the most that is within Hillary Clinton's grasp. People can argue that Obama would be capable of much more -- or, on the contrary, even less, and that not even a narrow win would be possible once the smear machine got through with him. There is simply no way to be sure now, when it's time to vote. Thus: also a wash.

- On diversity and opportunity, a breakthrough either way. But on a deeper level of "diversity," we have the prospect of returning a husband-and-wife team - Bill Clinton's emergence has made this unignorable -- already in the White House for eight years, versus fresh blood.

Any vote for anybody is a gamble. Who imagined that the George Bush of 2000, with his "compassionate conservatism" and critiques of "nation building," would become the man we've known in office? We have no idea what surprises will confront a President Obama, or Hillary Clinton, or Romney, or McCain, or how they might respond. We have to place bets -- roll the dice, if you will -- based on what we do know, which for me is the elements above.

But who is this man? Have we forgotten to notice that we barely know him? Is being in love a good reason to nominate a candidate for President of the United States? [..]

Maybe we should wait and learn something about who this man is. Where has be been and where will he lead us?

CLINTON WON'T COMMIT TO RENEW CONSTITUTION...Illinois Senator Barack Obama has finally signed the American Freedom Pledge, joining his fellow Democratic presidential candidates in encouraging the restoration of basic Constitutional principles after the battering they have taken during the Bush-Cheney era.
All the Democrats, that is, except New York Senator Hillary Clinton.

The pledge is anything but radical. It simply asks candidates to affirm a statement that reads: "We are Americans, and in our America we do not torture, we do not imprison people without charge or legal remedy, we do not tap people's phones and emails without a court order, and above all we do not give any President unchecked power. I pledge to fight to protect and defend the Constitution from attack by any President."