For reasons unclear to me, I take my right to vote more seriously than most of the people I know; so I'm grappling with who to endorse for the '08 presidential election 11 months early. It's been said by folks smarter than me that all politics is local- meaning that if the average Joe's perception of his hometown is good; if the streets and parks are clean and the police and fire department squared away, then Joe thinks everything is fine and probably won't stray too far into the political fray asking questions and comparing the candidates. For this reason almost all incumbents, or their political parties, are re-elected. This is probably a fair assessment of recent elections. However we live in a much different world now than we did even 2 or 3 years ago.
As I begin to ask questions and look for solid answers I am troubled by the following:
- Hillary thinks she has been training for the oval office for 35 years. She knows better and we know better.
- Some of Hillary's experience in the oval office includes the Monica Lewinski debacle with her husband Bill Clinton. While the Democrats are too polite to make it an issue now, you can bet the Republicans are waiting patiently to play the Monica card. In my view when they do it will cost her the election.
- We are at war with a country who was never any threat to America and our young people are dieing.
- Old white men have ruled our nation since I have been alive. Shortly I'll be an old white man.
- Busch and Cheney (my almost contemporaries, so to speak) seem to have little concern for truthfulness or accountability and seem happiest when they can make important decisions in a vacuum.
And there is also the "baggage" I carry with me as I work my way through the candidates: As a young man I never cared much for black people. I applied the same thought process to that conclusion 35 years ago that I apply today to tofu - never tried it and I don't like it. Old habits are hard to break. But there is hope, even for an old dog like myself.
A middle-aged white man trying to reconcile a thought process based upon lifetime of racial indifference is a lot of work. Sometimes brutal honesty within the confines of one's own head can be well - brutal. Up until now it was irrelevant. Then came Barack Obama.
Like Joe Biden I see Barack Obaba as clean, articulate, fresh and intelligent. From where I come from that's a good thing and an important first step in coming to terms with what comes next: Can I trust him to do a good job? Can I trust him with the future of my 13 year old son? In the end it's 2 things that lead me to my answer.
Number One: Kinky Friedman, who was running for governor of Texas in 2007 remarked: "How hard can it be?" While simplistic, it's true today when you use Bush, Cheney and their cohorts as the benchmark for how our country is running. To be more direct: How could it get much worse for America no matter who is elected president?
Number Two: When I visit a doctor for the first time or hire a contractor to fix something around the house my first impressions of the people are unfiltered and honest and usually correct - and I act on them. I also hate to fly and I apply the same First Impression Test to the pilot and crew before I board. Last December I'm waiting to board a flight to New York where there's a snow storm. I'm more concerned than usual about arriving alive and I'm waiting for a glimpse at the crew - needing to apply that First Impression Test to the likelihood of my plane arriving in one piece with me in it. In they walk, Captain, Co-Pilot, 3 flight attendants. The captain is an an African American man. My first impression: We're OK. As a black man living in a world full of indifferent white men like me, he probably had to be smarter and work harder than I would have had to become an Airline Captain. I guess that makes me a racist?
Like the airline pilot, Barack Obama probably had to work harder and be smarter than his contemporaries to get where he is today. My impression: We're OK. I'm voting for Obama. And to be clear, I'm not voting for Clinton/Obama. The only democrat I can vote for is Obama and his choice for Vice President. I think he can end the war and reunite our country. I think he will work harder, and be more honest and accountable, than any other candidate. That's an amazing change in my personal thought process.
