Super Tuesday came and went

Well, it's not-so-super Wednesday. The Lady Di and I stayed up, with Fred the Wonder Dog, watching the results on MSNBC and CNN. She can't stand Fox News and, frankly, neither can I...but I'd switch over when she went to the bathroom just to see the view from the other side. Let's not kid ourselves, CNN and MSNBC have a liberal slant just like Fox News has a conservative slant.

It looks like the Republicans are in for quite the donnybrook when their convention rolls around, unless something breaks for one of their three possible candidates. Frankly, my personal opinion is that Richie Rich - oops, I meant Willard Romney - should quit blowing his personal fortune and get out of the race. Let's face it, the man has changed his position on more issues more frequently than some of us change underwear. Chris Matthews even asked him last week if he'd ever changed his position in a way that didn't help him in the polls. There was a faint whiff of Nuremberg during his speech last night to his supporters - he had this weird "call and response" thing going with them that made me think that they're more like pod people than critical thinkers.

Mike Huckabee has one thing going for him, the "fair tax" proposal. I like the idea of a national sales tax, but there're still questions. Would it be a tax over and above the current sales taxes that most of us pay? Would it apply to food items? Most importantly, what's the percentage rate for it? It's a start, but there're still issues to iron out. I don't agree with his stand of a constitutional amendmend to ban all abortions nor do I agree on the idea of a constitutional amendment banning all marriages that aren't between a man and a woman. I don't like his stand on the Iraq War. I certainly don't like his stand on that conservative bugaboo, "activist judges", because it completely ignores the fact that our system of justice is based on English Common Law - a system that calls for interpretation of a law instead of slavish adherence to an "original intent" that none of us can know. Add to that the fact he's a creationist and, well...I won't be voting for him anytime soon.

As for McCain...I don't understand why the right-wing blogosphere and talk-radio has turned on him the way they have. They act as if it's an unpardonable sin that the man actually tried to get something done in a bipartisan manner instead of being an unyielding ideologue. They seem to be more interested in some kind of conservative philosophical purity, with some of them even going so far as to say that they'll vote for Hillary Clinton before they'd even consider voting for McCain. The saddest thing is, he seems to be listening to them more and more - he now supports the Bush tax cuts which he initially opposed. His comments about having to stay in Iraq for a hundred years put him out of touch with the way that most of us feel. I just can't vote for him.

Which brings us to the Democrats, Senators Clinton and Obama. I watched their debate, and found it immensely gratifying to see two well-spoken, intelligent, courteous human beings that addressed the issues rather than (like the Republicans) petty sniping and posturing that was more designed to appeal to a base than to create consensus. And I don't agree with the current punditry that says that they're both the same - they are in many ways, but there are differences. The most glaring is, of course, the Iraq War. But there're other differences, like their health care plans. Senator Obama's plan allows us to keep our existing insurance if we want to, while Senator Clinton's does not. Senator Obama's plan mandates insurance for all children, while Senator Clinton's does not. But the big question, and the answer from Senator Clinton, has been ignored by the media: how do we pay for all this?

Senator Clinton's plan will cost approximately $110 billion per year. When she was asked how that was going to be paid, she responded that the first $55 billion would come from rescinding the Bush tax cuts - fair enough. But the second $55 billion...she gave some vague response about savings in efficiencies that sounded more like wishful thinking than financial planning. I didn't like her answer, and I'm really surprised that nobody jumped on it.

So who did I vote for? I voted for Senator Obama, for the reasons I've given above but also because he offers something that we haven't seen in a long time, maybe never - a reminder that ultimate political power rests in the hands of the people, and that it is the responsibility of the people to push for the changes that we want to see. He will make a great President.