Tuesday, January 08, 2008

After a lot of back-and-forth over the last couple of months, I have finally – on this, New Hampshire Primary Day -- decided upon a candidate.

Some of you may be surprised that I'm not supporting Hillary, as I volunteered briefly on her senatorial reelection campaign, attended a fundraiser, and fully supported her husband (even volunteering on the 1992 campaign when my Republican parents had to drive me to the HQ). I believe in a lot of what she stands for ideologically, but I worry about her electablity: I feel she is far too polarizing of a candidate to win in the general election. Many Republicans are so fed up with the Bush administration that they are willing to cross party lines -- for anyone but Hillary.

Some of you may be surprised that I'm not supporting Edwards, as he was who I had predicted would win the nomination months ago. (One, unfortunately, can never underestimate the power of racism and sexism, even within the Democratic Party.) I voted for Edwards in the 2004 primary and supported his run for VP. My friend, Susie, has been working on his campaign doing advance work in New Hampshire for many months now. She believes in him, and I do, too; I think he's completely believable as a populist candidate, looking out for the working class, $400 haircut and all. After his relative failure in Iowa, however, I think it’s time to wake up and smell the future.



Obama.

The man embodies change. It has been said before, but he’s Kennedy-esque, no doubt about it. (In fact, he’s been described as JFK-meets-MLK – not too shabby of a hybrid.) When I re-watch his speech at the DNC in ’04, I still get chills. I remember that night, and I remember that speech, and I remember having that reaction at the time.

The man is special.

The man is inspirational.

Tonight, I’ll be attending a party to watch the returns in the West Village. I think New Hampshire voters are going to go with Obama and I think it’s the right move.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I held out for awhile, too, but I'm with you. I can't help getting excited at the thought of the US earning back some respect from the rest of the world.

jd said...

Agreed!