Curious Notions

Although I’ve been following the U.S. election politics reasonably closely over the past couple of months, I haven’t been particularly participatory and I haven’t really commented on it here. My general feeling has been that I do not want to see any of the Republican candidates in office–though I’d rather see McCain there than any of the rest of them, which includes my former governor Huckabee.

I’ve been somewhat divided on whether I’d rather see Clinton or Obama win the Democratic nomination. I think either of them would do the job well–or at least conduct themselves and the country in a fashion closer to my own interests. My big fear with Hillary, though, is that she’s a divisive enough figure (through no real fault of her own) that conservatives will come out in droves to vote against her. And I really, really don’t want to see another Republican White House for four years, despite being an independent.

NC’s primary isn’t until May, and, if I’m allowed to vote (independents only get to vote if the party lets them), I’d been thinking of voting in the Republican primary to ensure that McCain gets the nomination over his competition. But now that Romney has basically handed his delegates to McCain, McCain is almost certain to be the GOP candidate.

This leaves me with Clinton and Obama again. A few weeks ago, I don’t know that I would have hazarded a choice. But the more I learn about Obama, the more I like him. I’m a sucker for idealism, I guess. But Obama’s more than an idealist and charismatic speaker. Tom linked to this examination of Obama and his record. Allow me to naively hope that there will be some serious change for the better here in the next four years.