The Primaries
My parents live in New Hampshire and are going to vote in the Primaries on Tuesday. I actually first voted in New Hampshire, in a primary. It was very exciting - not only voting for the first time but voting in the famous NH primaries. Anyways, I called my parents the other day and tried to convince them to vote for Sen. John Edwards. I was informed they'll vote for whomever the hell they feel like it, thank you very much, but I had to try. :-) I've become convinced that Dean's a no-go in the national polls - he alienates as many people as he revs up - and to quote some columnist the other day, "Kerry's got no Elvis. You can't win without Elvis."
They could put a half-blind monkey on the Demo ticket and I'll vote for it, but like the voters in Iowa and NH, I'm trying to think about what the rest of the country might find palatable. (It's hard, because I think pretty much all Republicans are on crack). There are *a lot* of people who are unhappy with Bush in both parties. Give them a reasonable alternative, and Bush will go. Edwards message resonates the most with me, and I think will with the rest of the country. He's the anti-Bush: on the lookout for working class Americans as opposed to the upper 1%. He's definitely lacking on the experience side (though so was Bush in 2000 - the guy had been out of the country two times in his life, only for a work and only for a week), so maybe he'd be better as a VP? I think that might be a killer ticket: Kerry/Edwards. I wonder if they would do it?
I gave $50 to the Edwards campaign when I first decided he was the guy I liked back in November last year. It turns out it was a good bet. I'm probably going to pony up another $50 after NH, once it becomes a bit clearer who's got the most momentum. Bush has at $200m warchest from his rich buddies - so if you've got an extra few bucks and you want to see Bush defeated, remember it's insanely important to put your money where your mouth is. And honestly, with online forms it's ridiculously easy now to just whip out the debit card and donate online.
Anyways, while we're on the topic, I have to think about that first vote of mine. I was such a bonehead in college. I was part of my college newspaper and during the primaries in 1992, *every* candidate passed through our campus and I could've had personal interviews with every one of them. But I didn't. In fact when Clinton came through, I remember quite clearly turning down an opportunity to talk with him "Who's that guy? Some Governor from Arkansas? Come on." That and once sporting a mullet in high-school are definitely high on the list of regrets in my life.
Okay, that along with the Orkut post and I'm done with the required Blog posts for this weekend. :-)
-Russ