Come on, Ride the Train

Okay, so I am a bit of a politics nerd (hey I got my BA in Political Science!). It seems Obama beat his competition for a grand victory with 34% of the vote. Edwards got 30% and Clinton got 29%. This is a bit tighter than the republican vote where Huckabee got maybe 38% with Romney coming in second with 25% of the vote. I’m not republican so I won’t spend too much time talking about them. But I will say that I for some reason thought Gullianni would show better with his riding the coat tales of 9/11 like Bush. Maybe his personal life interfered. Anywho, the fact that people don’t seem to be voting in fear of terrorism is, to me, a good sign. We can finally look to the overall issues. Huckabee keeps putting his religion upfront in center, again like Bush (and we see how Christian like he is) and although this may attract his Christian republicans polls show that he has a lot of work to do with other groups. Being a Christian in and of itself won’t make you a good leader (in fact, a devout Christian is a better follower but that’s a rant for another time). Anywho enough about the Republicans…

So with Obama winning is this a foreshadow that he will win the democratic vote? How representative is the Iowa vote? Will New Hampshire copy this result? Call me optimistic but if Obama wins the primary I feel Obama wins the election totally. With the independent vote leaning to the democrats and young people taking a major liking to Obama (much like we did with Clinton, although damn-it I was too young to vote then and only got to vote when Bush won, boo) I don’t see a republican in office this time around (she says with major joy). So if he were to win, what does that say about our country? Are we that tired of Republicans? Are we starting to look beyond race and ethnicity (you have to add that in because with a name like Barak Obama in this country, you have to be an open minded person)? Also, why is Clinton not doing as well as expected?

I was actually rooting for her and Obama, either one would be a major statement and both have qualities I respect outside of their political games (she’s tough, he’s likeable). Edwards is nice but I’m not confident that he is a strong leader. I think maybe Clinton isn’t as likeable because she appears a little more cold and calculating. But in a sense, isn’t that what we want in a leader? If she were as nice as the guys, we wouldn’t take her as seriously. She’d be Oprah! And Oprah’s great and everything but she isn’t President material, she’s just too kind hearted for that (yeah, I love Oprah!). So Clinton is in a tough spot where sexism rules. Perhaps if she could show her stuff as someone’s vice president she’d be better off. But I don’t see Clinton as anyone’s second!

So next month when we vote at the primaries for who will represent our political party and later on when the selected democrat and republican duke it out for our votes what will be on your voting agenda? The horrifying decline of the US dollar (now even India won’t take our dollars because of its low worth, people in Europe can go on shopping sprees here because our dollar is worth half of the Pound and I believe close to that with the Euro, and some international models don’t even want to be paid in US dollars anymore), the scary housing market, the high cost of oil and gas (although in other countries like England our prices are still cheap to them), the end of this war, better foreign policy so we can repair the damage that Bush made with other countries, universal health care coverage (anyone see Michael Moore’s Sicko, pretty good, I say if taxes are going up might as well go for a good cause)? I don’t know but I do know is that we were riding the gravy train (is that a saying?) with Bill Clinton and someone better get us back there!