05 February 2008

super tuesday

I'm known among my friends for being political. I think it's because of the PoliSci degree, but maybe also because I have a lot of opinions about politics. So they were surprised (and you may be too) to learn that I'm not voting today. This is because when I registered to vote at age eighteen, I had no idea what my political views were, let alone which party I identified with, so I registered as an Independent. But honestly, if I were voting today, I'd have a hard time choosing, for various reasons that I'm not going to go into because it wouldn't really matter if I did.

But James has decided! Greg and I have been talking politics a lot over the last few weeks, following the election coverage, watching the news, and James is starting to catch on. This morning he asked me why Hillary can't be the president. I suppose he got this idea because Greg and I think Hillary would have a hard time winning, seeing as there are so many Republicans (and plenty of Democrats too) who vehemently dislike her and will try their hardest to stop her.

This led to an explanation of the primaries, and then a bit about who Hillary is, exactly, and then some info about Obama just to be thorough. I didn't really mention the Republicans at all, just their existence really, but I guess James has somehow caught on over time that Greg and I are not fans of the Republicans.

After all of this explanation, James announced, "I want Hillary to be the president. I'm a Democrat!"

"Good boy," I said. He was dismayed, though, to learn that he's not quite old enough to vote.

Then he asked Evan whether Evan was a Republican or a Democrat, and Evan's indignant reply was, "I'm a boy!" Still a bit young for politics, I guess.

I hope if you're able, you'll vote today. This is a pretty exciting election -- the prospect of electing a president who is not male or not white is exciting, beyond the fact that I like both Hillary and Obama as candidates (as opposed to merely not hating Kerry in '04) -- and I kind of wish I were voting today. But I'll be happy with either choice.

Anybody want to reveal in comments who they're supporting?

5 comments:

Jessica said...

I was all set to vote for Senator Obama, but then voted for Senator Clinton today. I admit it, I let the New York Times do my thinking for me.

John S said...

My absentee ballot for Obama is in the mail. Granted, our primary isn't until the 19th... but I wanted to make sure it gets there on time.

karen said...

I, too, am an independent, but also would have had trouble deciding today. But I DO know I'll be going Democrat! =0)

Julie said...

Austin and I are registered respectively as democrat and republican...not because either of us have strong feelings about either, but that we thought it might be a good idea to have SOME say, no matter who's up.

Republican wise, I voted for Huckabee. I know nothing about huckabee, but I know that I can't imagine listening to plastic face McCain every day (stupid reason, I know), and I'm really just sick of republicans after the last four years, so I didn't want to make someone's win bigger than it was...So I supported the underdog in the republicans...

As for democrats we voted Hillary. Either option was decent though, but I personally know more about Hillary that I like than I do about Obama...

Samay said...

I voted for Obama because I really wanted Edwards, but now that he's out, it seems like Obama's much less likely to "go along and get along" with the political establishment.

Also, I like that Obama's willing to campaign in all 50 states, whereas Hillary seems to be doing the same old "only campaign in battleground states" that lost the elections for Kerry and Gore.