So, there's this primary election

[redbird]

As many of you know, there's a presidential primary on Tuesday in a number of states, including New York. I'm a registered Democrat. Right now, in New York, that means my choices are Clinton and Obama (in this state, you can only vote in the primary of the party you're registered in--I had a teacher in high school who always voted Republican but was a registered Democrat, because the Republicans seldom had primaries).

I was going to vote for Edwards, but he has withdrawn from the race. Neither Clinton nor Obama strikes me as absolutely wonderful (or I would have been supporting that one already). I'm open to suggestions about who I should vote for. Preferably based on policy (voting records and/or consistent statements by the candidates, not "this guy who supports $candidate said X once" or "s/he looks like s/he would do thus-and-such"). Don't bother telling me that other people have endorsed someone--if you're someone I know and like, your endorsement means more to me than that of a Kennedy, or your state legislator, or your favorite newspaper, even if all you have is a hunch.

Comments

[ashnistrike.livejournal.com]

I like Obama. (Admittedly, I live in Dupage County, Illinois, where everyone who's not a yellow-dog Republican likes Obama.) He did good work in the Illinois State house. Examples would include fighting like hell to get a corrupt police department to videotape interrogations, and another law for police accountability to reduce racial profiling. And after all that, the police endorsed his Senate run. He was really good at negotiating with people across the aisle to get bipartisan work done, where bipartisan is not code for "everybody does what the Republicans want." He's also done some good work in the Senate, though not as much, as his career there's been shorter.

While not perfect at it, he also does have this tendency to try and keep political discussion on the issues, even in the middle of a campaign. This was particularly notable in the Senate campaign. No one's particularly excited that he beat Alan Keyes in a landslide--a half-chewed cat toy could beat Alan Keyes in a landslide. But he beat Alan Keyes without losing his temper, falling into name-calling, or being drawn into discussion of the faux-issues that are all Keyes ever talks about. That was pretty darn impressive.

He also (I just found out on Tom Smith's journal) got the founder of Creative Commons as one of his internet policy advisors.

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

I worked that election, and I remember that a local (to that precinct) Republican's being surprised that *anyone* had voted for Keyes. I also heard lots of stories about lawns bearing both Bush and Obama signs.