This Is Not A Blog Post

A new poll shows Hillary Clinton holding a comfortable lead over all other Democratic candidates for president. Barak Obama is strong but well behind. These are the two monied candidates. Recent history favors monied candidates so my early prediction is for Hillary Clinton. I would also expect her to defeat any Republican candidate. I may not like her politics but I respect her strength and savvy.

My disappointments with Hillary Clinton (and The Clintons in general) notwithstanding, I would vote for her if she wins the nomination. I can't imagine voting for any likely Republican. Nor am I likely to vote for a third party candidate or just not vote. If Hillary Clinton is the Democratic nominee, I will vote for her, especially in a potential swing state like Washington.

Clinton gets my vote for smarts, toughness, gender and compassion. She loses my vote for supporting the Iraq war, corporatism, addiction to big money and parsing every word; in short, she's a very modern major politician. I would especially like to see a woman president just because it would be a change. Other nations have done as well (or badly) with women executives as with men. It's funny that the United States, the supposed font of democracy, innovation and openness, is so long in reaching this milestone. Even more fun would be a Clinton-Obama ticket to REALLY push at boundaries. I'm not sure America could handle both changes at once, although I think it would be great.

Clinton's spinelessness on the Iraq war vote will always be a disappointment and suggests that she can't always be trusted but trusting any politician is usually a risky business. These days, though,opposing the continued occupation is now completely safe, so I think she can be counted on to ratchet down the war. She and most other candidates still talk like in terms of American military hegemony, with residual forces and over the horizon capability, but that is pretty much the consensus policy of official Washington. That's also why candidates who say otherwise, like Dennis Kucinich and Bill Richardson are either ignored or dismissed. Perhaps along with a President Clinton, we can elect a Congress that will insist on something more than a policy that only stops killing Americans.

If I have my druthers, though, Nancy Pelosi would become the first female president after both the sitting vice-president and president are removed from office for High Crimes and Misdemeanors.

postscript

I'm officially not supposed to be paying attention to the presidential campaign this far out or even blogging, for that matter. But here I am anyway. I'm a political junkie so I can't ignore politics for long. At this stage I am more concerned with ideas and policy than the horse race. It's never too early for an informed citizen to know what candidates think, say and do. It also helps me clarify my own thinking. As for the blogging, I can't quite let the world pass by without shouting into the wind.