Seeking an endorsement from a questionable character is orders of magnitude different from being a follower of a questionable character. In fact, the second option begs questions of Obama’s character.

My mother is 85 years old. She grew up in Washington DC and has been interested in poiitics her entire life. We spoke about the election and Hillary Clinton recently. She said, “you know I met Elanor Roosevelt when I was a girl. I loved her – she was my inspiration. I have always hoped I would see a woman become president before I die. But not THAT woman.”

Voters must discriminate. We must look at our ballot and say, “I choose this one. Not that one.” Discrimination by gender or race is one thing. Discrimination by reason is another. And It can be a very fine line.

People are weighing their choices carefully today and this suggests new and deeper reasoning by large numbers of people. I don’t suggest we’re blind to color or gender but something fundamental has changed because we’re not making our choice between two white men in this election.

I think one candidate has done a good job of expressing the idea that we can vote – not for what we are – but for what we believe in. It’s not about race. It’s not about gender. That is the difference.

Hillary proposed a tax holiday on our fuel for cars…

I hope everyone can forgive that, and the other typo(s).

–Mike–

The Clinton’s believe in Triangulation as a way to win. The idea is that there is a spectrum of opinion about any given subject, the best way to make a deal is to stake out a position the proper distance from the extremes, and get to a happy medium.

Triangulation is worship of a false god. It’s profane, and profoundly misguided.

People have opinions on a wide variety of subjects. There’s no logical consistency to it, let alone any kind of continuous spectrum to choose from. There is no “liberal” mindset. It exists only in the pigeonhole that people try to push us into.

From this, it’s no small stretch to assume that there is no single rational model of the world. We don’t all think about things the same way. We’re all different (but I’m not!)

Instead of worrying about the right thing to do, the triangulation cultist worry about where they are relative to the mythical “mainstream” and try to maintain the strategic position relative to it.

If we all believe that slavery was a good thing, Hillary would be for cutting taxes on the chains because the price of steel from China went up… she’d propose a slave chain tax holiday. The issue of slavery won’t be part of the picture.

Think I’m being absurd? Well, we’re all slaves to our cars, and Hillary just proposed a tax on the fuel for our cars. She doesn’t even consider that perhaps there’s a bigger issue to be resolved here… the “non-negotiable American Way of Life”

We need leaders who don’t just triangulate, we need to move away from the myopic vision of politics as usual, and to step back and look at the big picture, and least try to do the right thing, for a change.

–Mike–

My favorite candidate, the one who has helped us slowly transition away from the Federal Reserve Note (by stealth in 1985)… Ron Paul, has been successfully ignored to death by the corporate driven media.

Barack really was lesser of evils until the Wright thing broke the first time… his dealing with it head on, and Writing His Own Speech really did it for me. It takes time and effort to get things just right, and he nailed it. He’s smart, and he cares about doing things the right way, instead of the easy way.

That’s why we’re both voting for Obama in the morning.

–Mike–

I can’t say the same for all the people I know who also know Barack Obama.

Mike, what makes you say “she’s shifty and spineless and only in it for power” ?

How is anybody with the gall to run for President not in it for the power, at least in some sense?

Here is a test: Is it possible to ignore Hillary’s gender or Barack’s race?

We can ignore both with McCain, no? What does that say?

I have what I regard as a positive racial reason for favoring Barack: I want us to get past race as a divisive issue, and I think electing him would be a good way to do that. But::: Is that not also a kind of racism? I have to wonder.

Race shouldn’t matter. Gender shouldn’t matter. But they do.

It’s hard to celebrate what makes us unique without dividing us on the same grounds. Easier said than done.

Why aren’t more women running for the oval office? It’s not like they aren’t represented in the congress, senate and governors’ offices across the country… it’s because they will always be described as “this woman”.

I respect the hell out of both Obama and Clinton for running despite knowing that every time someone brought up their stances on the issues, someone else would only be looking at the color of their skin or their gender.

Though the UK and New Zealand do have a woman for head of state, nobody voted for her.

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Ireland’s now on its second successive female head of state (she’s halfway through her second and final term). A man hasn’t held the position since 1990.