Talking Heads

One of the things I like about the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary is that the way they turned out might mean that my vote on Super Duper Tuesday might mean something. I'm not sure why in the past those two states (whose combined population is half that of the San Francisco Bay Area) have anointed the nominees, but it doesn't seem that way this year.


My vote may matter in the primary on the 5th, so I've been thinking about all the people running, and talking things over with friends and the volunteers at the food bank. In November it won't really matter because I'll vote for whoever is on the Democratic ticket even if it's Mickey Mouse. Well, maybe I wouldn't vote for Mickey Mouse if John McCain were the Republican candidate, but maybe I would. It's been fun to listen to the pundits complain about being surprised about what happened in Iowa and NH, and expound contradictory stuff: I listened to a woman on NPR yesterday saying, "Well, he has to win in South Carolina" about every single Republican candidate Robert Siegel named. She didn't say what would happen if they didn't win, and most of them won't.


My personal feeling is that the Democrats will win in November because they aren't Republicans. Younger people tend to be more liberal and if nothing else, so far Obama's campaign is getting the twerty-somethings to the polls ('the more you have to conserve, the more conservative you get"). More importantly, I think the economy will continue to slide, and even if the Republicans aren't totally responsible for that, it's like this: If you throw a party and the party sucks, it's your fault, even if you were responsible for bringing only some of the liquor. When times are bad, Americans vote with their wallets.



Note: Five hundred Kenyans have been killed and 250,000 have fled or been forced from their homes due to violence related to the presidential election there three weeks ago.