Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Super Wednesday

So! What happened yesterday as the US of A made history with the biggest primary ever, voting for potential presidential candidates that included. for the first* time, a woman and an African-American? *(EDIT: Not the first time, as commenter Reality Bites points out to me -- Shirley Chisholm was the first in both categories.)

1. John McCain pretty much has a lock on the nomination for the Republicans. Whoa! Stand back, watch out for flying bits of brain and skull -- right-wing heads are exploding!!

2. Clinton and Obama is still a horse race. Clinton took the biggest states, but Obama -- wow! I was surprised how well he did in this mega-primary. So their battle may go on for months.

I was struck by the man-on-the-street interviews being done by the CBC -- the most frequently-used word was "change", even by some of those who said they voted for McCain. The American electorate is clearly fed up with the outrage upon outrage that characterizes the current administration. They want change, big time change, maybe even big time enough to vote for a relatively unknown quantity like Barack Obama. Obama, more than anything, promises change... and hope, something that's been in short supply for the last few years.

Really, they're both awesome candidates. Hillary has the expertise to get the job done, but Obama has the *whatever-it-is* to give America back its "Can-Do" attitude. The ideal scenario for me would be the experience and expertise of a Clinton presidency with the optimism that Obama would bring to the administration as VP, or vice-versa.

But while the primaries are still happening, when the nominees talk about "change" I hope they'll address some of the things that need changing -- the outrages perpetuated by the Bush/Cheney administration, the powers they gave the executive branch, still stand. Which "agent of change" will do something to reverse this?