Today, A Window Opens

The democratic primary has been a true example of fight it out to the absolute head-shaking, mind-bending end. And while Hillary Clinton has, as of this writing, refused to concede, the writing is on the wall.

Barack Obama will be the next democratic presidential candidate, and I believe the next president.

Before you go ANY further in this post, please watch this this . Remember this when anyone says things have not changed. They have... but things change, slowly. Today, a window opened for one man and the stuffy old-guard air of my generation has been blown out the damn door. And thank God for that!

I was a Kucinich supporter in the early primaries. Then an Edwards supporter. After that... it was wait and see for me insomuch that I DIDN'T support, and would never support, Hillary Clinton if there was an alternative, but I didn't "know" who Obama was, or what he stood for.

Hillary is, quite simply, too conservative and too pro-corporate for my stomach. I am, however, proud that a woman could run for president and I don't buy into the notion that she did so on the coattails of her President husband. She's bright (but not bright enough not to make really stupid mistakes), but Bill Clinton made MANY mistakes, among them supporting NAFTA and his nuclear arrangements with North Korea. The first helped to impoverish millions of Americans. The second, while understandably an attempt at appeasement with a maniac, has just caused further problems.

Yes, I voted for the male gendered Clinton twice, but my second vote is where I got off Al Gore's bus and I did NOT vote for him. Gore's staff, in meetings with many activists on nuclear waste issues, was insulting to the Native American communities whose sacred lands were designated as nuclear power's weeping diapers (every dump leaks... period) and in his appropriately rightful zeal to defend the planet from warming--even at THAT time (mid 90s)--were seeming blind to the negative consequences of nukes (not to mention the short lived ability of nukes to address even the most interim power needs) and REFUSED to address those negative consequences.

I was working for an international environmental group, at the time, and learned more in my seven years there than I ever wanted to about politics and influence. Not to mention outright dishonesty. I left stupidity out. Should have included that.

Realize, I was dealing with a "better" political situation than most political situations and certainly better than the last 8 years. The last 8 years, in my reading, equate to murder, evisceration of our Constitution and privacy rights, a black hole, financially, outrageous environmental degradation, and the handing over of incredible wealth to corporations. Not to mention the complete deconstruction of our international reputation at our own hands.

Apparently, we can afford to murder, spy and tap, but we cannot afford to educate or heal. That is not America. At least not the America I would support or have supported all of my adult life and through MANY elections and presidencies.

Thus, I associate Hillary with the policies of Bill (except far more conservative, and Bill was a definite conservative moderate). Worse, I associate the policies of Hillary to Hillary.

I honestly don't know if I would have voted for her in an election against McCain. I tend to be more scrupulous than to cast a vote for the better of two bads and likewise tend to the purist side with pragmatic withdrawals. I may have been forced into a third party write-in. I don't know. Now, I will never know, thankfully.

Congratulations, Barack Obama. You have broken barriers, incited a riot of new voters, and have some of the best speech writers since John Kennedy. You are truly the hope for the future and Barack, you got my vote. I have watched you over 16 months and am convinced.

If you are interested in reading his speech of tonight, here it is.

Blow wind blow... you blew the window open... now for the door.