Thanks, John.

This morning, as he was kissing me goodbye, my partner mentioned that John Edwards was dropping out of the presidential race. It's still January, Super Tuesday has yet to happen, and now I'm left going to my caucus to support a mediocre candidate. Someone who I respect as a personality, but who I think is too quick to pander to the middle.

I could forgive Bill Richardson, my first choice, dropping out. He was the best qualified candidate to run in years, but he didn't sell out to enough people (read - corporations) to be viable. My second choice, Dennis Kucinich, was a similar situation. Especially after he was unjustly barred from the televised debates, there was no purpose in his staying in.

But, John Edwards? Yes, the media had already written him off. Yes, he probably didn't have a snowball's chance in hell. However, he did have a chance of continuing to bring a more progressive, dare I say it, liberal view to the "progressive" party!

And he blew it. He could have at least stuck in until Super Tuesday and given me a chance to support someone at my caucus that I really believed had a chance of developing universal health care that actually worked. He could have given me the chance to support someone who dared to talk about the "two Americas", someone who began to understand the class divide in this country. He could have given me a chance to support someone who had a chance of diverting some of our nation's vast resources away from the politics and policies of hate-mongering and toward social reform at home.

But he didn't. Now, don't get me wrong, I actually like Barack Obama. I actually beleive he does have a chance of making some change for the good. But I would have liked the chance, just once, to stand behind someone I believed in politically more than just the lesser of two evils.

So, we're left with two candidates who, politically, are more centrist than any centrist could hope for. My only hope is that we stick to our guns enough to vote for the one who's slightly less in the pockets of the corporations.

So, reluctantly (what else is new), I post my personal support for Barack Obama.

It could be worse, though. My partner is a registered member of the other party. There isn't one slime ball in that lot I'd be willing to speak up for.

Kind regards,

M.J. Christensen


Post Script:

It's now August of 2009 as I recover my old blog posts, and I very nearly didn't include this one. However, I still stand by John Edwards' campaign and his ideas. It is certainly not my place to judge his marital fidelity. Now that we know the outcome of the election, items such as this, written in a time before we knew, look odd. But I still stand for what I said at the time, based on the information I had at the time.