It's either sex or politics...

This is a writing blog, a personal blog, but most definitely not a political blog. I'm not usually interested in playing lightning rod to the opinions that inevitably fly when you do write about policits. Yet here as the primaries are underway and the nation's eyes are back on the theater of the absurd and zealotry that is politics, I have been feeling inclined to write something.

I don't think it's any great secret that I'm a Democrat even if I never said those words before, and that in a parallel universe where idealism could actually lead to reality, I would probably be a Green Party member. And we Dems are faced with a very complex choice right now. Vote the Big Lady whose words are more polished and who obviously has the connections and the experience to back it up, and who appeals to our desire to finally see a woman in office. Vote the Hip Young Guy who stands to unite Black and White America, as well as the young, the jaded and the just plain tired of the same old (and who didn't vote for the war!). Or vote the Slick but Strangely Sincere Lawyer, who appeals to middle class workers and unions. Behind that decision is the old "but who has the best chance" strategy of reasoning. I've been walking slowly toward my decision now for as long as a year, but in the last month it has finally coalesced.

Since I'm never very articulate about my own reasons for making these choices, I was pleased to read one of my favorite authors, Michelle Richmond's blog post today, which so articulately and clearly sums up my feelings almost exactly (and will tell you who I favor). I recommend you read it.

Michelle's post begins like this:
In October of 2002, Hillary Clinton voted for the resolution authorizing George W. Bush to take military action in Iraq. I want to get past it, but I can’t. And this is one huge reason that I feel myself feeling passionately about Barack Obama, who showed courage that few others did by opposing the war from the beginning. I have no doubt that Clinton would be an able president. I believe she genuinely cares about issues that I care about personally–health care and education. Her insider knowledge of how Washington works and her political savvy might give her a real advantage in terms of getting things done.

But I worry that the same political savvy that might make Hillary Clinton a force to contend with in the White House is what caused her to vote for going to war with Iraq in the first place. It was a short-sighted vote, one which calls into question the strength of her convictions. Maybe she thought it was necessary, in the aftermath of 9/11, with the presidential campaign looming in her future, to take a “tough stand” against terrorism.

Read the rest of Michelle's post HERE: