Since SC is a very red state, the Democratic Primary is usually the only place where I feel my vote matters much. I’ve liked Obama for a while now. There’s not a lot of difference, policy-wise, between Obama and Hillary, even on the subject of Iraq, which is often portrayed as a key difference between the two (MSNBC has a fun, flash-based tool that will let you compare yourself with both of them on some issues). But I find myself drawn in by his charisma, eloquence, intelligence, and–though it’s certainly an over-used term–vision. After listening to our current president, who wouldn’t be able to pass my freshman comp class, butcher the English language for nearly eight years, it’s just plain refreshing to hear a politician who isn’t entirely at the mercy of his speech writers and who can speak intelligently about issues that matter. And Hillary, for better or worse, comes off, time and again, as too much the career politician. And she has all the charm of a middle school principal.
I had heard that Obama had a slight lead heading into the SC primary, this past Saturday, but I had no idea he’d take fifty-five percent. That’s truly encouraging. Commentators on NPR this morning were suggesting that SC might not be a sure bet for the GOP this fall. Seeing South Carolina go democratic would indeed be a change, and one I’d be happy to stand for.
For a stark contrast, I saw Mike Huckabee on TV this past weekend performing every rhetorical contortion he knows to avoid frankly admitting that invading Iraq and loosing so many American lives in the process might not have been, in hindsight, such a good idea. He’s, as far as I can tell, the worst of the Republican pack.