Everything That Can Be Said Has Been Said

Tuesday, Apr 29 at 10:35 a.m.

Everything that can be said about the Democratic primary has been said. Hillary has 35 years of experience, though she hasn't explained what experience that is. Matter of fact, her wikipedia entry shows that she has had no policymaking responsibility until elected to the Senate in 2000. If we were to use her criteria for experience, I've already racked up 5 years of being a bright(?), college educated guy with opinions. In 30 years, I'll have 35 years of experience -- finally enough to be president. Rad!

Well, that's fine - I'm sure the McCain campaign is waiting for her to get the nomination before dropping the "Hillary doesn't have any real experience" bomb on her campaign. This would have no bearing whatsoever on my willingness to vote for her. Her policy positions are different enough from McCain's that I exhibit a strong preference for her. Additionally, cabinet positions are super important. Note that administration officials have been riding roughshod over our current president, leading to a litany of debacles that I won't even bother to enumerate. In a Clinton II administration, there is no doubt that many cabinet positions will be given to members of the brilliant Clinton I team. So - in November, if Hillary is the nominee, I will gladly cast my vote for her. And don't doubt it! I just changed my voter registration to reflect my current address.

But I just gave $50 to the Obama campaign.

Why? Let me tell you why! I've been thinking a lot about the things that really bother me about the Bush administration. I care about all of the things in the above mentioned non-enumerated litany of debacles, but let's set those aside for a moment: Let's pretend for just a moment that I don't give a rancid rat's ass about the Iraq war, environmentalist appeasement with ethanol, tax cuts that are the economic equivalent of giving a junky more junk, the general creepy apocalyptic bent, Don Rumsfeld's evil grinning post-modern fascism, or the cynical manipulation of the media and the American people. Oh wait. I really care about that last thing.

The true nature of a great person is revealed when they are under pressure. All generals are great until the bullets start flying. And this campaign has been brutal. There have been bullets. But the problem is that Hillary's campaign has resorted to scaring the American people into voting for her. The much-ballyhooed 3:00am phone call ad is less about her experience (which is actually lacking when you look at the facts) and more about making folks think about what would happen if "the other guy" picked up the phone.

If Barack picks up the phone, I think we'll be OK.

Clinton's persistent message has been to scare the democratic party into thinking that Obama is a candidate who can't win. Why? Subtly, her campaign suggests that maybe it's because the American people won't vote for a "black guy".

I don't believe that we live in that kind of nation.

We have lived through 8 long years of fear-politics. The change drum that the Obama campaign keeps beating is not one where we simply change the tax code. It is not one where we simply change the health-care system. It is not one where we simply change the policy in Iraq. This is an opportunity to change the level of political discourse in this country.

This is one change that has been a long time coming.