Of course, I meant to send this Wednesday morning when I was basking in the glow of Obama's insurmountable delegate lead caused by his huge victory in North Carolina and Clinton's weak victory in Indiana. But classes started and I'm moving and now I can post this knowing that, for the first time, Obama has a lead in Super Delegates. He's on the cover of Time as the winner of the Democratic Primary and briefly, all is well in national politics (or as well as it can be). We're now so focused on the next president that I think that we'd rather forget our current one. He seems pretty interested in forgetting that he's the president of the free world as well, preferring to dodge serious questions to talk about his daughter's wedding. Man...
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/10/washington/10bush.html?ex=1211169600&en=666c8882cbb29577&ei=5070&emc=eta1
I can let myself get worried about the national election though. Working the polls was an educational experience, showing me the system and the average voter (in Greene County, Indiana, that is). I was able to work the polls because my dad has for several years. He was able to because one of our neighbors is a public officer. The inspector of our precinct was 20 years old and worked because her grandmother had asked her. She did an excellent job, but judging from her mispronunciation of "delegate," I'm guessing that she's not a political junkie. Obviously, it's a family and friends affair, which is nice in some ways (I got to work with Dad!), but quite detrimental to the system in others.
At my precinct we had 132 Democratic votes and 49 Republican votes, which is a ludicrous tally. People were very open about participating in Limbaugh's "Project Chaos" and their biggest concern when casting a vote for Clinton, was that they would not be able to vote Republican in November. The fact that Obama almost overcame those odds is pretty incredible.
You do know that you're in Greene County working the polls:
... when more than one person says:
"I'm voting for Clinton because I can't have a black man in office."
... when some extremely racist and sexist jokes are made to the whole precinct and no one bats an eye.
... when someone rides a mule (A MULE!) to the polls to vote! (By the way, he voted for Obama.)
It was an interesting day.
The tides have turned now, however, and who knew that Indiana would play one of the vital roles in deciding the election. Despite everything, I'm very proud of our state. For not having had a president campaign here in fifty years, we did ourselves credit.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/10/washington/10bush.html?ex=1211169600&en=666c8882cbb29577&ei=5070&emc=eta1
I can let myself get worried about the national election though. Working the polls was an educational experience, showing me the system and the average voter (in Greene County, Indiana, that is). I was able to work the polls because my dad has for several years. He was able to because one of our neighbors is a public officer. The inspector of our precinct was 20 years old and worked because her grandmother had asked her. She did an excellent job, but judging from her mispronunciation of "delegate," I'm guessing that she's not a political junkie. Obviously, it's a family and friends affair, which is nice in some ways (I got to work with Dad!), but quite detrimental to the system in others.
At my precinct we had 132 Democratic votes and 49 Republican votes, which is a ludicrous tally. People were very open about participating in Limbaugh's "Project Chaos" and their biggest concern when casting a vote for Clinton, was that they would not be able to vote Republican in November. The fact that Obama almost overcame those odds is pretty incredible.
You do know that you're in Greene County working the polls:
... when more than one person says:
"I'm voting for Clinton because I can't have a black man in office."
... when some extremely racist and sexist jokes are made to the whole precinct and no one bats an eye.
... when someone rides a mule (A MULE!) to the polls to vote! (By the way, he voted for Obama.)
It was an interesting day.
The tides have turned now, however, and who knew that Indiana would play one of the vital roles in deciding the election. Despite everything, I'm very proud of our state. For not having had a president campaign here in fifty years, we did ourselves credit.
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