Guest blogging at In the Pink Texas again.

Which is really just a reworking of this post and parts of this one.

Last night I watched the remaining 3 candidates give their victory/denial speeches.

First up was Clinton. She gave the denial speech. That is, denying the drubbing she took in the Potomac Primaries. A ‘congrats Senator Obama’ would have been classy. Still, I have to admire the way she’s soldiering on despite the fact that things aren’t looking quite as rosy as they once did for her. I’m rooting for Obama, but I’ll take no pleasure in seeing her lose. And, truth be told, a part of me would really like to see her give the Republicans the beating they so richly deserve.

Of course, it’s the way that kind of thinking bothers me that makes me lean toward Obama whose speech in Wisconsin was, as usual, inspiring. I could feel the energy coming through the TV, and I wasn’t even watching an HD channel. He was optimistic, classy, funny, and most importantly, acted like a nominee. He began leveling attacks at McCain, but they were of a respectful velvet-fist variety, which is what I think we can expect from Obama.

McCain followed Obama. The starkest contrast was in the visuals. Where Obama spoke before a jubilant crowd of thousands in a basketball arena, McCain spoke before a group of old white folks in what appeared to be the kind of hotel conference room that is usually reserved for high school proms. There doesn’t seem to be much enthusiasm for the Republican party these days, but then I guess that’s what they should expect after driving their brand into the ground. Still, listening to McCain speak, I couldn’t help but feel a bit sad that he had so thoroughly hitched his wagon to Bush’s star (surely a white dwarf). I don’t think I’ll take much pleasure in seeing him lose either, but lose he must.

Speaking of McCain, someone made a clever video along the lines of the Obama video I linked to last week. It’s a nice repudiation of his let’s-stay-in-Iraq-for-1000s-of-years position. Call it the audacity of hopelessness…

Since Super Tuesday wasn’t the decisive event it was planned to be, the Texas primaries will actually mean something. I’m all atingle at the thought of my vote actually counting. What to do…

I usually vote in the Republican primary since in my county that’s where the actual decisions are made, and besides, since 1994 it’s given me extra opportunities to vote against Bush. I’ve proudly voted against him 8 times, not that it’s done me any good. Still, there’s something ennobling about glorious defeat as I’m sure the defenders of the Alamo would likely have said if they hadn’t all been slaughtered by a bunch of illegal aliens. Too bad we didn’t have that border wall back in 1836.

This year it’s different, though. I might have a say in the Democratic race. A say in choosing the candidate I will actually vote for in November. I wonder what that’s like. Texas might even become the new New Hampshire (Nu H-shire?).

So, the question becomes who do I support? I think Clinton would make a fine president, but I don’t want a president McCain, so I’m going for Obama, who will also make a fine president. It crystallized for me while getting my gray locks shorn yesterday afternoon.

The stylist and I were talking and the subject turned to Super Tuesday. I said I would be watching the returns, and she said she would be doing the same. “It’ll be interesting,” she said and then looked around before whispering, “We’re not allowed to talk about that stuff with the clients.”

Now, think about that for a minute. Talking and debating politics with each other is the essence of a functioning democracy. The notion that we can have differing opinions and actually discuss them with one another without coming to blows is so rare that employees can be forbidden from discussing politics. That is indicative of a severly poisoned political atmosphere.

Our political life has become such a twisted brew of ideological purity, acrimony and intolerance that more than anything we need a politician who can rise above it. Barack Obama is that candidate. We need someone who won’t start out with 50% of the country and all of the opposing party steadfastly against him or her. That’s Obama. Even those who disagree with him on policy respect the man.

Perhaps we can learn to once again have a political culture in which we can talk and respectfully disagree without having to demonize those with differing opinions.

There are plenty of other reasons why I intend to vote for Obama in the Texas Democratic primary, and perhaps I’ll explore them here, but in the meantime, I have to plan the press conference and event where Obama and I will take the stage so I can announce the official Coyote Mercury endorsement that will seal the deal for him in Texas.

His people and mine are working to find the most advantageous day for the event.

And, in the meantime, this is a really beautiful video. And isn’t that Herbie Hancock in there too?

I’m a sucker for a quiz so I couldn’t resist the Washington Post’s choose your candidate quiz.

You read a series of questions and pick the candidate’s response with which you most agree, not knowing who said it. The problem is that some say exactly the same thing and others use words to say absolutely nothing so a few questions wind up being toss-ups; nevertheless, here are the Democratic candidates ranked in order of how closely my views match theirs:

1. Dodd
2. Obama
3. Edwards/Richardson (tie)
4. Clinton

Dodd was a surprise, mainly because I know nothing about him, but the others came out much as I expected.

I don’t believe in joining parties, but in these times, I very much favor the Democrats. Still, I figured I’d try the Republican quiz. The ones most likely to offend me least are as follows:

1. Giuliani
2. Paul
3. McCain
4. Huckabee
5. Romney/Thompson (tie)

When I watched the Republican YouTube debate last week, I was struck by two things. The first was that nearly all of these guys would be an improvement on Bush, so low has the bar been set. The second was all of them seem destined to lose.

However, I might have to vote in the Republican primary since I live in one-party Texas where the Republican primary tends to be where elections are really decided. So who do I chose? I’m leaning toward Romney just to give me the satisfaction of seeing the Republicans nominate a flip-flopper from Massachusetts whose commitment to rightwing fundamentalist Christianity seems suspect to many an evangelical.

That’s the kind of poetic justice you just can’t make up.

Guest blogging at In the Pink Texas again.

We read a whole stack of them to get caught up, squinting and mispronouncing for full effect.

It’s hard to see the humor anymore, though.

After tuning out of politics for months and just living in a kind of blissful ignorance, well, actually not ignorance, it’s more the kind of sickening certainty that requires neither updates nor commentary, I discovered that there is an election looming on the very distant horizon and there are a whole slew of puppets people who would like to lead this country the rest of the way to Hell in a handbasket.

I wish I had watched the Democrats debate last night. Perhaps the performance would have given me hope, though in perusing this morning’s paper, I find that the questions came from YouTube and one from a snowman who was concerned about global warming. A snowman? Really?

“Is this what political discourse in this country has come to?” asked the blogger whose own snowman suit is at the drycleaners, thus allowing only a trace of irony.

Okay, so there’s no reason to hope. We’re good and screwed.

Looking at the D side, I think I like Edwards and Richardson, but in the interest of staying in the real world, I suspose I’ll have to choose between Obama and Clinton. I like Obama. Clinton, on the other hand, voted for the Iraq war and therefore lacks the wisdom and foresight that I and many like me possessed in 2003 when those with open eyes saw this for the fool’s errand that it is. She is therefore unfit for the office. The president should be smarter than me. I guess that leaves Obama.

On the R side, it appears that McCain has lost his staff and his mind, leaving only some actor who might or might not run, that mayor from NYC and some flip-flopper from Massachusetts. My, wouldn’t that be a delicious little bit of irony if he gets the nomination. Perhaps, I’ll watch these bottom-of-the-barrel R’s try to defend themselves against the damning arguments of that snowman.

Guest Blogging at In the Pink Texas again: Kicking the Pledge Up a Notch

It’s about adding ‘under God’ to the Texas pledge. And it’s about chili and Chile.

Yesterday I guest blogged at In the Pink Texas again, this time about Bible courses in public schools: Thou Shalt Do Thy Homework

Here are links to two recent guest posts I wrote for In The Pink Texas:

Teen Sex, The Legislature, and Other Icky Facts of Life about the move towards abstinence-only sex ed.

How Will We Destroy Public Education When This Kind of Thing Happens? about a recent vote in the Texas House to kill vouchers and increase teacher pay.