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Monday, January 28, 2008

It's all about the O

Since declaring my support for the John Edwards campaign, I've begun to vacillate regularly between his old-school progressive screeds and the new, post-Civil Rights Era, post-1990s, post-Bush, post-modern, post-script, post-partum, post-brand cerals, post-no bills, ex-post-facto rhetoric of Barack Obama. Yesterday may well have been a tipping point.

My sister had a run-in with the Edwards people, who trespassed their way into her carport, where she felt they most certainly should not have been, and where they left some campaign materials on the eve of the primary in South Carolina, where she lives. She also very nearly had an encounter with Obama at a restaurant where he was rumored to be stopping just hours after he learned of his 28-point victory. She left after it became apparent he wouldn't show.

But these personal experiences once removed aside, it has become apparent by Obama's stirring victories in Iowa and South Carolina and more strikingly by the distant, discouraging third-place finish Edwards had last night that it is time to back a new horse in the horse race. For better or worse, I'm buying into the idea that Obama's words may harbor as much political prowess as promise, that he can bring us closer to true cultural and economic equality and that he is the one man who can stop a Hillary Clinton nomination, a subsequent election of another neocon and the continued festering of America and the world. In other words, help me, Obama-won; you're my only hope.

So now I won't have to agonize in the voting booth Tuesday in the Florida primary election. I can cast my ballot with a clear mind and purpose, knowing deep down in my heart that maybe, just maybe, the touchscreen machine I use will not misinterpret or discard my vote. It is a uniquely American experience, after all, to stride with the dignity of knowing there's a chance, however great or small, that I may or may not have just participated in the democratic process. Someday soon my country may run as efficiently and effectively as Canada, or Norway, or even Slovenia. And that, my friends, is a stirring reminder of just what it means to live
here in the good ol' U. S. of A.

1 comment:

Hope said...

You're hilarious, sweetie.

And I love Obama, too.