I am in PA and we don't get a primary vote until April and it BLOWS because I am so, so deep in this election, I am obsessed. If you get to vote on Super Tuesday, please know that I am really -- jealous isn't the word, I am PAINED by the importance of your opportunity and want to tell you this, friend to friend...
An undecided liberal friend in NY let me try to convince him to vote for Obama today. Here's pretty much what I said.
- Dems NEED to win this election. How many SCOTUS seats get filled in the next four years? There were Reagan Democrats and there are Obama Republicans and especially Obama independents. None of the votes Clinton is getting in this primary would be lost in the general if Obama gets the nod. The same is not true in reverse.
- Kucinich threw to him in Iowa, basically an endorsement, for all my Kucinich people. (Of whom I am not one btw. I think I literally saw a unicorn on his campaign website once, it was on an ecard or something.)
- You KNOW Edwards would be endorsing Obama if it wasn't such a 50/50 shot at political suicide.
- Ann Fucking Coulter said she'd campaign for Clinton against McCain because she's more conservative.
- I think they're equally intelligent and capable but Clinton -- for all the revolution a female president would bring -- is old guard. Her campaign has proven it.
- I truly don't think Obama would have bowed to pressure were he in the Senate for the Iraq vote. One of the things the Clinton campaign has tried to use against him were all of his "present" votes in the Illinois senate, which were tactical maneuvers (IL planned parenthood had to come to his defense for doing what they had asked him to do when Clinton stuck national planned parenthood on his ass over one of those votes) and for many of which he was the lone Senator who chose to take a stand on the legislation. I think the kid truly has balls.
- I think the Ted Kennedy endorsement (and the fact that he's the one who told him to go ahead and run for president) speaks volumes about whether he is "ready." He also pretty much handed him the Kennedy torch in Denver; a pretty big deal.
- I think there's a subtle undercurrent -- it's not like Republicans can come out and endorse the man and many Dems may be afraid to, but there is a sense that Obama has maneuvered around Washington expertly while being true to his beliefs. He is good at it. He is well-liked. He builds consensus and doesn't demonize. He could get some shit DONE. I think Clinton has surprised Republican Senators with her likeability, but she seems to have alienated a lot of Dems.
- Obama can obviously manage the shit out of a campaign. He must be doing something right, and he could take that ability to the white house.
- The right is *salivating* at the chance to run against the Clintons.
- In a Clinton/McCain matchup, Clinton equals the past and McCain equals the future. In an Obama/McCain matchup, McCain becomes the past.
- In an Obama/McCain matchup, Obama wins the Iraq debate so hard, even just with his line from last night's debate ("I don't just want to just end the war, I want to end the mindset that got us into war in the first place.") Clinton and McCain.... it's more of a toss-up.
- I just believe the dude. I believe he means it, I believe in his authenticity. Cuz listed THE WIRE as one of his favorite TV shows. That dude could be your PRESIDENT. I believe he has reasons for making his health care plan optional for adults. I like how forthright he is in discussing, say, a past nano-waffle on Iraq (when he said he couldn't truly know how he would have voted if he were in the Senate) by saying essentially "dude, we were in the middle of a midterm election and I had to find the nicest thing to say", or when he was on the Daily Show and explained, in a relaxed, conversational, you're-at-dinner-with-the-guy manner that being in the Senate for too long just forces you to make crappy votes, and that's why he's running now.
- There is a Time cover story about the youth voter. I am having a total
orgasm over this, but that's me.
