red has no place in a green world
politics:
as time passes, and i find my heart-candidate out of the running, i'm finding myself increasingly split on which democratic candidate i support. i really like obama, and, assuming that the south doesn't ruin things (and it looks like enough democratic voters are being active in the south, at least in this primary, that most southern states are tottering between blue and red), he seems to have the best chance of winning. there are just so many more people who would actively vote against hillary because of her politics and personality than would vote against obama because he is black. on the other hand, i'd REALLY like to see bill clinton become "first man." even if though he was not my favorite democratic president, he was absolutely the most effective democratic president we've had since kennedy, and i think he would be bringing a ton of positive influence to the table, and would really wield the first-lady's soapbox to effective purpose. obama might be a more electable president, but hillary would be dragging not one, but two vice-presidents (bill) with her. So, i think that i am still undecided, but that if hillary wins the primaries, that obama should absolutely be vice president, but if obama wins, perhaps hillary shouldn't be, since it would likely be more detrimental than beneficial. i really like that edwards isn't in the running, since he was environmentally mediocre, but maybe he would appeal to moderates as obama's running mate.
the mccain upset is certainly a hopeful phenomenon. on the one hand, he will undoubtedly be more of a challenge to defeat than other republican canidates do to his broad moderate appeal, but would also be less problematic as a president than other candidates. he is on par with edwards (mediocre) on environmental issues, but that coming from a non-northeastern republican, that is a pretty amazing record.
speaking on geography, i think it AMAZING that absolutely no presidential frontrunners come from california or the south when every president after kennedy has been from those states. the door is wide open. a president coming from the northeast will certainly not gain much support from the south, but nobody strongly opposes a canidate from illinois or california. while obama or hillary will not dissuade liberals anywhere in the country from supporting them, Mccain's old school republican values (economic development and growth), may gain some backing from moderates, but may incite many religious-conservative republicans to forgo participation in this election. so far, only 4 states have had significantly more republican voting activity than democrats, and in none of these 4 states did mccain receive more than 15% of the republican primary vote, and of "true southern" states (NC, SC, GA, AL, MS, LA) that have votes so far, only south carolina has supported mccain. this pleases me.