So now that my guy is out, I'm faced with a choice. Do I support Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton? To the many knowledgeable and informative pundits out there, my choice should be an easy one. I am, after all, a Vagina-American, and we all know that Vagina-Americans consider only their lady business when they go to pull that lever. (No unintentional penile symbolism there, nosiree.) The plain fact is that neither of them is talking enough about the things that matter to me--the decline of the middle class, family values as something more than a shorthand way to slap down gays and lesbians, the unbelievable growth of wealth among the corporate cronies enriched by the current administration--the very things that John Edwards came out swinging for every day.
Many people didn't like his "anger". I did. It seemed to me that he was the only one on the stage who was actually angry enough to make real changes in a system that--as far as I can see--has gone terribly awry. I certainly can't see Hillary Clinton--who has some pretty questionable corporate ties herself--being willing to make the bold moves that are necessary. Moreover, Clinton is saddled with the legacy of 1990s gridlock. Somehow I can't imagine the "vast right-wing conspiracy" moving over to make room for her agenda in 2009. Do we really want to hear more about Vince Foster and Whitewater for the next five years? Put me down as a firm no for that one.
I guess in a way it's unfair of me to judge her based on the attacks that she would attract, but that's the Realpolitik in me. It's no good being a trailblazer if the trail ends on Inauguration Day.
That leaves me with Barack Obama. He seems to have passion and integrity, and he doesn't (yet) present the same bulls-eye for the Right that Clinton does. But I can't say with any certainty that I know what he stands for in the realm of policy. "Change" doesn't really count. Plus, Obama thinks that my ass and I owe the United States a trillion dollars, and frankly, I don't have that kind of money sitting around. I haven't asked my ass yet, but I think it's broke too. Freeloader.
Of course, it's not as if my views actually count anyway, living as I do in Montana, Home of The Nation's Last and Least Significant Primary. And, in the final analysis, any one of the Democrats who have been in the running this year--along with most primates and possibly a few of the brighter marsupials--would be better than what we've got now.
*And interested non-Americans
