That said, I’m for Obama, not because of all the half-real, half-phony, who-the-hell cares drama about Hillary and Bill, but because I like him on a bunch of issues that are important to me, including but not limited to net neutrality, open government, and access to information. The fact that Lawrence Lessig has not only endorsed Obama but become one of his policy guys cuts a lot of mustard with me. And while Obama is as much a native of the foreign-policy establishment as either Clinton, he’s shown a greater willingness to be open to the idea that maybe the United States hasn’t always been the bestest most wonderfullest force for rainbows and sparkly unicorns on the world stage one hundred percent of the time. The presence of people like Samantha Power and Robert Malley on his foreign-policy team also impresses me. And of course there’s that whole didn’t-vote-for-the-Iraq-war thing. Silly me, that still matters.

I also find that the Clinton campaign has reminded me of a fundamental thing I didn’t like about the first Clinton administration. Not that they made deals with conservatives, not that Bill couldn’t keep his pants zipped, not that they used “triangulating” rhetoric. It’s that they didn’t build the party and they didn’t build the progressive movement. It was all about them. The party and the movement suffered, while the Clintons soared above the fray. Their fabulous ability to withstand nuclear attack was often thrilling (see what may have been the funniest Onion story in history, 1998’s “Clinton Escapes Through Air Vent”), but it didn’t do the rest of us a whole lot of good. So where some people look at Obama and see someone whose main talent is inspirational speaking, I look at his biography and see someone whose actual primary profession, before entering electoral politics, was as a community organizer. This seems worth trying. With Hillary Clinton as, say, Senate Majority Leader.

A friend who has just registered to vote for the first time in her life was asking me about Obama, and I also pointed to his work as a community organizer. It’s shows his talents and inclination, and as we struggle to regain our place in the world I think he would be a better choice. Hillary is going to be constantly trying to prove how “tough” she is, and we might find ourselves in another Middle East misadventure. Obama’s background also makes him a symbol of this new linked world in which we find ourselves.

Interesting that Maureen Dowd is a wicked human being. I can see that, but as a feminist I confess I’ve felt a lot of frustration with Hillary demanding to be treated as an equal, and then using Bill to make her case. It’s a little disingenuous.

I too will vote for whichever Democrat is left standing. Every one of them is head and shoulders above anything the Republicans have nominated in years. I was blown away by Obama’s speech at the last Democratic Convention and thought then that he was being annointed by the party (much like the Republicans did with Jim Rogan back around 1996, but that kind of blew up in their faces after he became part of the Clinton prosecution team.) I think the Kennedy endorsements will really help Obama a lot but I wish that Obama hadn’t made that god awful stupid remark about Ronald Reagan and Republican ideas.

As for Lawrence Lessig, look out for your copyrights.

It will be interesting to see what the inner city turnout is in NYC. And whether the Bradley effect takes real hold nex Tuesday.

As for the Regan remark — what Obama said was true. Regan fundamentally shifted this country. Now the population is beginning to regret the reality that government is not here to help you, and swinging back left, but Obama was right about Regan’s impact, and if you listen to the entire interview Obama never says that he liked Regan’s ideas just that he had a transformative effect.

On the one hand, having someone like Hillary, with her insider knowledge of Washington and ability to work across party lines in the Senate could be very helpful. On the other hand, I, too am sick-to-death of the Bushes and the Clintons in Washington and think we need fresh people in the executive branch of government.

It would also be different to have an inspiring speaker as president. But, I will gladly vote for either of them over any Republican in November.

Heard an interesting piece on NPR today about an area of Barack’s support - traditionally bright red Western Kansas. I guess because his mother’s from Kansas, he’s done lots of organizing out there, and a number of ex-Republicans plan to vote for him. Perhaps another Iowa in the making?

Independents will vote McCain or stay home is she’s their democratic choice. The african american voters will stay home (as Melinda points out). Only the hardcore dems will even bother to vote if she’s the choice.

I’m an independent with a lot of independent friends all across the country. We talk about this stuff all the time. Almost all of us have said we’d vote for Obama, but if Hillary is the candidate, we will stay home (or vote for McCain).

The fact that she is even running shows her willingness to burn her party to the ground in order to get what she wants. If the dems lose this election after 8 years of Bush the Moron King, then the party will well and truly be the joke that Rush says it is.

I had dinner last night with Fred who is my old law prof and his wife (a law school classmate of mine). Jennifer was chief counsel to the department of the Interior, worked for a couple of Republican senators and congressmen. These folks are really plugged into the Republican power players. They spent the entire night discussing whether George W. Bush was the _worst_ president in American history, and they concluded that he was. They talked about Obama’s power and passion. They conceded that HIllary is smart and capable, but they were offended and disgusted by Bill and the idea of having him back in the White House is offensive to them. Hell, I’m a staunch Dem and a liberal, and I was disgusted by Clinton’s behavior.

I also thought the conservative Republican, David Brook’s had an interesting comment. He said the Republican establishment is _very_ afraid of Obama, and far less so of Hillary.

Because it looks like it’s going to be McCain we are probably going to lose a lot of male Regean Democrates to McCain. We have to make up that deficit someplace, and Obama is raising the roof with young people and independents. I think Hillary, who seems very much like yesterday’s news will deflate a lot of that enthusiasm. I’m not young and she deflates me. I won’t stay home because I’m a super voter, but I’m afraid a lot of people will. People lose heart when they see it devolving back to politics as usual.

*I* won’t vote for Hillary, and I’m the vote you want. I’m a moderate independent in a swing state. I and my brethren in the other swing states decide who gets to be president.

I have yet to hear from an independent that they’d vote for Hillary. I know, the plural of anecdote is not data, but I do think it’s very telling.

On the other hand, I an many of my friends would vote for Obama in a heartbeat, just to see something different.

On the other hand, I’ve been finding that a lot of people other than me in the libertarian spectrum—including such diverse people as Leonard Peikoff, Ayn Rand’s “intellectual heir,” and David Friedman, Milton Friedman’s law professor son—have reached the conclusion that it’s less bad to support the Democrats in general than the Republicans; and several of them, including Friedman, are favorable to Obama in particular, for reasons that make sense to me. So if Obama is the nominee it’s looking fairly likely that I’ll vote for him. And I’m hoping he’ll get the nomination, because of the surviving contenders, he’s the one I’d be least regretful of seeing in the White House.