A Few Changes

Well, Bill Richardson got out of the race. I'm a tad disappointed, but maybe he'll get involved in some other way, some time in the future. One can only hope. On the right hand side of my blog you'll new see that Gov. Richardson's campaign page is no longer linked. In its place I've put Barack Obama, John Edwards, and the Green Party's Cynthia McKinney. I'm still digging around to see just how the GP primary works, so I'm not sure I'll be able to vote in it. Greens don't currently have ballot status in AZ, but that may not matter. I've gotten the impression that the process for the GP primary is divorced from the major party primaries on February 5th. If so, I may be able to vote for a Democrat on the 5th and a Green at some later date. Hooray!

I'm leaning toward Obama at this point for the Democratic nomination. Neither he, nor Edwards is quite anti-war enough for me, but Obama has certainly made a splash by saying he'd be open to talking to hostile leaders -- a step I think we need to take if we're being realistic. Edwards is more anti-corporation than Obama which makes me happy. On the other hand, he's been a force for change outside the system, much as Gore has in recent years. It's possible his personality is more suited to advocacy than politics. I've left Dennis Kucinich on my list because I think he's great, but I don't find him presidential.

Cynthia McKinney is still a candidate I need to do more research into, but she's got a few things going for her. First, she's Green Party, which means her politics are likely to be more closely aligned with mine than a Democrat's would be. If this isn't so, I'll take her off the links. Second, she doesn't have the baggage Ralph Nader has. Third, she's got the distinction of actually having been elected to office, something Nader has never done because he's never set his sights on anything below president. That always upsets me. Pick an achievable goal, dude! Superficially, Cynthia McKinney offers the perfect permutation for those who can't choose between voting for a black man (Obama) or a white woman (Clinton). Either would, of course, be historic and wonderful. McKinney, however, gives us the chance to go straight past that and vote for a black woman for president. If she starts getting anything resembling a foothold in the polls, look for the Right Wing to pull out all the stops and show off just how racist and sexist they are. I'm including the Democrats in the Right Wing in this.

The other change I'm making to the site right now is that I've re-enabled comments, but there's some sort of log in process that you'll have to do. Hopefully this will stop the spamming I was getting before, while allowing others to comment on my blog.

/Green Bandit Out.