Obama

I make it no secret that I am an avid supporter of Barack Obama. Obviously I was elated when he won the Iowa Democratic caucus. I'm not about to get overconfident and suggest this was more than it is, but man, it was wonderful to feel so proud to be an American. I haven't fell like that in years. A black man named Barack Hussein Obama winning in Iowa? Hopefully, this signifies something broader going on in this country.

Like I said, this in no way means the nomination is Obama's. It's one primary in one important, yet small state. But thinking about the whole Obama vs. Clinton thing, it just seems like there is so much irrational hatred of Hillary Clinton that getting the nomination might be easier than you would think. You don't need to take any sort of Gallup poll to prove this; just ask some apolitical people you know about her. People hate her. Not just Republicans either. I know Democrats who shudder at the mention of her name.

Now, don't get me wrong, I don't understand or agree with the anti-Hillary sentiment. When I press people I know on why the don't like her, I get answers like, "I just don't", or "she's just so...so...ugh". There's never a valid policy reason. I have my own reasons for not supporting Hillary, and all but one of them concern policy (the one that doesn't is that I would be quite uncomfortable with the Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton succession pattern). But I don't hate her, in many ways she's quite remarkable, and I think as a president she'd be much better than any of the buffoons on the other side. But the reality is what it is, a lot of people just plain do not like her for a bunch of stupid reasons, and their minds are not going to change. You can't force someone to like you.

We'll see if my thoughts bear out. My initial support of Obama was pretty idealistic. My support was real, yet I didn't see him winning the nomination as being realistic. Not anymore. This is doable.