Well, I did my civic duty and was the 15th person in my precinct to vote this morning at 7:09am. The woman who was checking me in remembered me from the last election. Heh. Some people are regulars at their neighborhood bar; I'm a regular voter!
And as usual, I got a little teary afterwards at the knowledge that we are fortunate enough to have this basic right. As I was leaving cars were streaming into the parking lot, so hopefully there will be good turnout.
Up until last night, I was still trying to decide who to vote for when I ran across interviews that Politico.com had done with both of the Democratic candidates.
HERE is the interview with Barack Obama.
HERE is the interview with Hillary Clinton. They gave me enough to make my decision, but I'll be honest and say I'd be happy enough with either one of them.
Afterwards, I talked to my father who is lifelong Democrat. In 2004, he voted for Bush because he could not bear to vote for John Kerry. Then, as now, his issue seemed to come down to who he can see as commander-in-chief. Interestingly, he thinks Hillary Clinton is best suited for that role. It got me thinking, though, about why that was such an important issue for him. The obvious answer is that he served in the military and worked for the Defense Department for over 30 years. So then I started thinking about what issues were most important to me, and why.
And since I'm a wannabe social anthropologist and I need something to amuse me until the results come in tonight, it's poll time!
I think I caught most of the issues, but I may have missed a few.
Poll