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hillaryclinton

Okay, admitedly i'm an undesirable alien (according to Lou Dobbs, despite being a technically qualified victim of the brain drain...) so i can't vote, however I have been a supporter of Barack Obama since before he was taken seriously over Hilary.

I can remember sitting in my room back in England, a few months before coming to the states reading about the election. I assumed it would be a Hilary dominated affair that she would win (and i would support her as much as a non-voter could do), when reading through some of the analysis (remebering this was back in early 2007) that there was a faint possibility that a mostly unknown junior senator from Illinois might be a democratic contender, although he had not announced any intentions. I remeber looking at his wikipedia page and thought about how unlikely it would be that he would even intend to run this time, let alone have any kind of chance. He looked young and idealistic, and even from a single photo he certainly had a certain charisma.

Once i came to America i felt as though my worst fears were realised... this was a country that while having a lot of free thinking compassionate people, there were a lot of self serving sociopaths. Meeting the first person who told me he didn't think poor people should get healthcare (particularly if he had to help pay for it) was an eye opener.

However as my initial shock wore off, and i realised that there was a majority of people who had a heart, and a brain (a lot of people just are taught not to use it). Then came the primary debates, and while i was impressed by all the candidates, the clear winner to me in every one of the debates was Barack Obama. I was honestly surprised that the Primaries were not over sooner, but i think it took a while for people to get to know him, and so Hilary Clinton seemed the safer choice.

I'm sure many were torn, i remeber a political cartoon of a figure representing the democratic party trying to tear itself apart because of its equal support for an african-american and a woman candidate...

However after a long and bloody primary campaign, the two very capable nominees shook hands and agreed to work towards a Obama run whitehouse, with a few mutterings from the Hilary Supporters for McCain (If you supported Hilary's policies, how could you support McCain...).

I have to say two things annoyed me a great deal about the primary campaigns, which to a certain extent were brought up in the main campaign.

The first was the guns and religion comment, which to me was very insightful, admitedly it wasn't the most tactful delivery, but its the truth about many in the rust belt states... its the reason there is a large NRA and conservative christian voting block in this country outside the bible belt...I felt while it came out as patronising, more people should have come out and supported Obama over this issue. That said, this isn't the UK, and the voting public can be very fragile about being criticised.

The second was the Jeremiah Wright affair, and i had 2 issues with this, firstly i listened to the "hate speech" and didn't even raise an eyebrow. It was a fairly mild if inelligent critique of American domestic and foreign policy, that is very common in the UK. Personally i would worry about the sanity and intelligence of anyone who cannot critically assess their own country's history...

My main contribution to all the campaigning was on sunday i got to call up people in Philledelphia to ask them very nicely to vote for Obama and whether they would like a lift to the polling booth... most people said no thanks, it was just downstairs... lucky students :P

However finally after all the mudslinging and political wrangling (and one major Obama betrayal over FISA... but then again nobody's perfect), we come to election day.

While it doesn't look like the requisite 61 senate seats were won, a new Lieberman proof majority is now in effect as well as significant gains in the house.

Which all pales compared to... at least 349 electoral votes for obama out of 538, which combined with a popular vote split of 52% to 47% (big in American politics) counts as one huge landslide.....

After it became clear, John McCain, got up on stage, and gave what i have to say was one of the finest concession speeches i have ever seen, and i was sad that i had not seen more of this side of McCain during the election, i still wouldn't have voted for him, but i might still have some respect for him.

Then President Elect Obama came on his stage and with a great deal of humility gave a speech about the days ahead and how difficult they will be, and how we all need to work together to help get this country back on its feet, and while i'm not American, and never will be in many ways (I'm a british girl, even if i don't like pg tips), i felt a great deal of hope and pride for this country that i happen to live in for the moment, and i have to thank both the people who did a huge ammount of effort, and the man who inspired it...

President Elect Obama, thank you, and please make this a country the rest of the world can feel inspired by again :)

For pure cheese factor...
"YES WE CAN!"

Apparently Obama speaking some hard truths seems to be a bad thing to the people of Pennsylvania.

I have to say i do like Hilary Clinton, i just prefer Obama. However the spin machine of fox and friends seems to have convinced the majority of democrats in the state that he'd be a bad choice for president.

I'm just rolling my eyes really.

55% Clinton,
45% Obama,
With 99% of the votes counted,

Source AP

Apparently despite Obama coming out ahead of Hilary Clinton, the LGBT community seems to favor to a certain degree Hilary Clinton. I've been trying to think why this is. Barack Obama, the great uniter, who makes friends with those who given the chance would lynch or burn at the stake every lesbian, gay, bi and trans person from New York to San Francisco.

I suppose it depends on how you feel about those who have been suckered into the conservative christian movement. I have friends who think those, particularly the ones who have been raised in conservative environments will never become enlightened. I don't feel this, i know its a huge effort, but i believe that anyone, no matter how damaging their upbringing can be enlightened.

If Obama chooses to make friends with the moderate forces in the republican party, it will be a way to start bringing those individuals out of the closed box they are in.

I would love to see Bush and company dragged off to prison and convicted for treason, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and a few other crimes to boot, but i'd far rather see a reformed and enlightened America.

Therefore i'm still gonna be an Obama supporter :)

Also as an aside, Romney has stepped aside, which leaves McCain on the route towards the republican ticket. I'll be interested to see whether the republican party prefers a foaming at the mouth preacher, or a pragmatic amoralist as their candidate...

While Iowa is only the first of many states in the decision making process, its interesting to see that while it was fairly likely that Barack and Mike would be the front runners in Iowa, i was surprised to see how far down Rudy was.

Huckabee is who right wing christians have always wanted in the Whitehouse, take Bush's ignorance, remove the advisors and corporate ties and then quadruple the fanaticism and intolerance. As a result despite him not being quite as gun-toting and maniacal as Fred Thompson, he's most likely to be the Republican candidate despite both Rudy and Mitt being better candidates in my (albiet pinko intelligentsia liberal) opinion as presidential candidates.

I'm happy to see Barack Obama ahead, and i hope this lasts, although i could be won over by Hilary being a very capable President. Suprisingly Hilary was behind John Edwards, although Iowa is a fairly conservative province and may be opposed to a female president (men and self hating women..grrr).

To my understanding former presidents retain their title, and since Gore won the 2000 Election, he retains that title.

Today he has been given the Nobel Peace Prize (Shared with the UN climate change panel), for his actions in attempting to fight climate change and bring awareness of Man Made climate change.

While many (including myself) would like to see a Gore '08 ticket, i'm somewhat opposed to him trying to run, because this race is going to be messy on a scale not seen in a generation, and i'd rather not see him get damaged by the fray.

I still like Barack Obama both as a Candidate and as a Person who would help restore American legitimacy at home and abroad. I hope he's half as decent as he claims to be..

If Ron Paul gets in i may have to leave because i wont feel safe in this country, to much of who and what i am, he despises.

Back to the original, Go Gore :) and unless we get Barack (or even a long game playing Hilary), looking forward to a Gore '12 ticket.

...and go straight to the heart, and the balls.

This is a video i came across today, which while several months old, is a very well thought out and very nasty towards republican and corporate claims.

She's talking to a group called the Apollo Alliance (named for the said program), but she's going after the claims of economy being damaged, and jobs lost by showing ways that the ecomy and jobs can be worked on at the same time as helping climate change.

Definatlty in favour of removing tax breaks for oil companies, and "encouraging" them to contribute to alternatives.

Not so in favour of clean coal technology, but its better than coal tech that pumps carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, however there are better solutions that should be focused on.

I have to say at the moment, Hilary is a stronger candidate, although i'm going to keep my eyes, ears, and thinking cap on the candidacy and occasionaly give my opinion.