Obama All the Way

So, since Bill Richardson dropped his presidential bid, I’ve been calling myself “officially undecided” as to the Democrat candidate. I’ve never fully understood the “undecided” voters we seem to get in every election – are they just not paying attention? – but in this case, I wasn’t choosing between two people so much as two philosophies.

Hillary Clinton. Barack Obama. I couldn’t decide between the people until I figured out whether experience, D.C. connections, all that Beltway insider-ness was a good or bad thing. Clinton really can “lead on day one,” as she’s been saying all this time – that is, until Congress starts in on her a million times worse than her husband ever got it. But hey, she has existing relationships, capital and all that.

On the flip-side, she has relationships, capital and all that. Clinton’s strengths are also her weaknesses. She’s a political genius – and, like her husband, that instinct to try and politic her way out of any jam can get her into trouble (more on this later). Clinton vs. Obama was really a choice between a) more of the same, and b) something new.

Events during the last week made my mind up. First, early in the week, Obama’s beautiful speech on race relations in America, which I firmly believe will go down as one of the greatest pieces of oratory in American history. As Richardson said Friday, Obama talked to us like we’re adults. He was exactly right. We may detest what Rev. Jeremiah Wright says from the pulpit – I certainly do – but we can’t just pretend that he’s not saying it, or that people aren’t cheering him on.

There’s more than one country in this country, and I’m tired of it. How are we supposed to overcome our common problems (crappy economy, for instance) when some of us can’t acknowledge that not everybody in America gets the Rich White Guy Experience? Notice how, in the speech, he mentions that poor and middle class white resentment is just as valid as what Rev. Wright feels.

The powerful would love it if you believed that blacks or Mexicans or Chinese factory workers were to blame for everything wrong with America, because then you wouldn’t be focusing on them. In Barack Obama, I see someone who isn’t too intimidated by the corporate power structure to tell people the truth – as he put it, opportunity isn’t a zero-sum game. He’s someone who can explain to us why we need to unite ourselves.

I haven’t got “Obamamania” by any means. I still want to know more about some of his policy issues. But I would be proud to have Barack Obama as my president.

And I’ve grown more disappointed in Hillary Clinton by the day. Just an example… Bill Richardson, only Hispanic governor in the U.S., former official during Bill Clinton’s administration, also an all-important super-delegate. The Clintons have been trying to lock up his endorsement ever since he suspended his campaign in January, to the point that Bill Clinton went to New Mexico to watch the Super Bowl with Richardson. Friday, when Richardson announced his support for Obama, Clinton’s campaign sniffed that Richardson wasn’t that big a deal, who needs Richardson? Show of hands – who thinks that, had Richardson endorsed Hillary Clinton instead, it would have been the most important endorsement in the history of the world? Yeah, that’s what I thought.

So last week, Richardson is the hot girl Clinton wanted to take to the prom, and this week he’s Judas Iscariot. Or just irrelevant. We can't decide. And we the American people are just supposed to nod our heads and go along, just like we're supposed to go along with the notion that after five years and 4,000 dead Americans, Hillary Clinton still can't admit that she f*cked up. Look, I’ve just had eight years of this 1984-style “pay no attention to that man behind the curtain” BS, and I don’t want four to eight more.

Our country does not need more division. It does not need more of this “do whatever it takes to stay in power” crap. It does not need more secrecy and more shading of the truth. I don’t want triangulation; I want integrity. (Before you ask - And also a better economy, no more dead soldiers and the freedom to make my own medical decisions, which is why John McCain is out of the running.)

I’m voting for Barack Obama. If by some chance Clinton wins the nomination, I suppose I can stomach it. But hundreds of thousands of moderates, independents and first-time voters probably won’t – just something to think about.