1) I am out of port wine

2) the elections are coming up tomorrow in this fine state

3) Re 1 & 2: this is a bad combination

4) I have been called twice by Obama supporters this week. Also, more to the point, Larry Lessig endorsed him. (This is old news but new to me). I have to admit that this is the only endorsement one way or the other that I think I've ever heard that would seriously make me re-consider a candidate.

5) But in the end I think Clinton can do more with women's rights, and education, and those are some places where this bleeding-heart liberal bleeds the most.

6) And there are more personal reasons for voting for Clinton, for me, which can be summed up this way.

Someone vandalized the Wikipedia entry on the 19th Amendment to read "The amazing Nineteenth Amendment may refer to..." -- and I have to agree, it's pretty amazing, that amendment. Pretty damn amazing, that is, that women have had the right to vote for just over 87 years in this country and not any longer than that, in a democracy that is supposedly going on 230+. Pretty damn amazing that we have had the vote for that long and Clinton is the first serious female presidential candidate (except for Pat Schroeder, who aside from her views on copyright I respect very much). (That list is enlightening; who knew that Benjamin Spock once ran as V.P.?) Pretty damn amazing that the glass ceiling, and whether or not she can bust through it, does not seem to be on the table for debate, even among people I respect who should know about glass ceilings, especially those who work in unequal fields like computing. Pretty damn amazing that it's convenient to not point out that 51% of this country has never had a president that represents them personally.

And yes, this is good: are we not so enlightened that we're over it, this is not an issue, look, she's running. But on the other hand, are we not even in a position to bring it up in public discussion, that misogyny lurks in corners and corridors of power?

7) But of course Obama is a historic candidate as well. I'm from the south, I know what this means -- big news, impossible news a few decades ago. The woman who called me about him the first time said he reminded her of Jack Kennedy, back in the day. And who doesn't want to vote for that kind of a candidate? Who doesn't want that energy? He throws rallies like rock concerts and his ads are brilliant and I agree with him on most things. But he won't win without a crazy push from liberal voters, and voters like me, and that is why I am on the fence.

8) But at least I won't be sad about either one of them getting the nomination, and that has to be some kind of first. If either gets elected president, we can have an outrageous party on my birthday, a year from now...

9) And now to decide whether to get up early, or go late to the polls after work with everyone else; one tiny drop in the bucket towards -- what? A small, mediated kind of revolution?


This personal essay is brilliant, and nicely summarizes what I am going through, more eloquently than I have.