Hmm...

It's the one-year mark; In less than 366 days, I'll be figuring out which precinct I need to vote in, and probably blowing off a class to go and cast my vote for the president of the United States. And, not wanting to waste that one vote, I've been thinking about who I'll vote for...for about six months, because I'm young and still easily excited about the prospect of being part of a democracy in action, despite the fact that living in Indiana renders my left-wing vote moot.

So I was, naturally, interested in article a good friend of mine recently posted on Facebook. Here's the full text. My friend's a little left of center and posts some good stuff (check out his blog), so I found it interesting. Basically, it's an article from The Atlantic Monthly detailing why the author, Andrew Sullivan, believes that Obama has a better shot at the White House than any of the other candidates.


He makes some good points, too; read the article for the details. Done? Cool.


My initial reaction was interest. I thought, and still think, that he underestimates the effect of evangelical Christians on the political climate. But I was also struck by the fact that he only mentioned two Democratic candidates, Clinton and Edwards, and Edwards only in passing; he also mentioned only two Republican candidates, Mitt Romney (again, in passing) and Rudy Giuliani.

Thnking about it later, though, I find that I like Obama less after this article. I was already, shall we say, unenthused about his prospects; I'm glad he's waking up the establishment, but as my great-aunt says, nobody named Barack Hussein Obama is going to be elected now and probably not for a long time in this country. Keep in mind that in the 80 years since the women's rights movement, we've had one serious female candidate for president. And even she doesn't have much of a chance, in my estimation.

I could go on and on about why I don't think Obama is the best candidate,and why I don't think he has the best chance at becoming the president. But back to my problem with Obama that resulted from this article: A conservative wants him to be the Democratic candidate. That's it. Call me crazy paranoid, and some people probably will, but I absolutely do not want a candidate that any conservative anything thinks would be good. I don't trust any of them any further than I could throw them. It's all a tactic to draw attention away from candidates that really could be elected and keep supporters of those candidates from voting. It's a theory than can be borne out by any consistent analysis of media coverage.

My vote is going to Edwards. He's intelligent and he cares about the American people. More importantly, he's electable. Basically, he's a more liberal, more progressive Clinton, without the womanizing and with a more likeable wife. I could go into more detail, but I'll save that for another, later post. Suffice it to say that the more I hear about him, the more I like him.

Oh, and incidentally: The other politicians that the conservative author mentioned briefly, Mitt Romney? Well, he's the real front-runner in the Republican campaign. People can talk about Giuliani all they want, but he wasn't a great mayor and he isn't a good candidate, and the party leadership will recognize that. That'll be another post too.