Blogtrek

This is it: the Virginia Primary

Now the finest hour for Virginians has arrived: a chance to make their votes count towards electing the next President of the United States. The Virginia Primaries will be held this Tuesday, with the Democratic Primary being of the most interest. Already the candidates have taken interest in us. The Dean and Kerry campaigns phoned me, someone working on the Clark campaign wants me to vote for Clark, and I have seen ads on TV here for Clark, Kerry, and Edwards. Further, there was a dinner here (the Jefferson Jackson dinner) at which four of the candidates attended.

So how do I stand on them now? First of all, my vote will not go for Kerry in the primaries. Kerry does not need my vote; he is hitting the heights at nearly every election and caucus that is held. I still wonder how he can go from single digits to half the electorate in a single bound. Further, he threw a computer call on my telephone. That did not sit well with me; I don't want anyone calling me by computer. If someone calls me, and I talk to them, and they keep on talking as if they never heard me, I hang up. But they did give a number to call, and someone answered right away. I complained about the computer call, and then it turned into a discussion on Kerry's candidacy. That turned things around for them as far as the computer call, because a human answered and was willing to talk to me, but I still am not going to vote for him. He did make one good statement today, when he said that Bush was telling stories on why the US sent troops to Iraq.

To me, Dean has been wronged by the media. They tore him apart, message by message, turning each into a gaffe, including the cheerleading speech at the end of the Iowa caucuses. I don't know how to contend with the hypermedia, for taking action against them could rob us of our freedom of speech and of the press. But still, I hear the Bush camp wanting Dean to be nominated. That is good enough reason for not voting for Dean. We need to send Bush back to Texas.

Kucinich did unusually well in Washington State, 8%, but he is not going to get out of single digits, and neither is Sharpton. Gephardt and Braun dropped out of the race, and I am certainly not going to vote for that extremist perennial candidate Lyndon LaRouche.

That leaves Edwards and Clark. I am going to vote for one of these two, although I feel like I may be voting for who I want for Vice President. It could be Clark, because of his appeal to Southern voters and to those who served in the military, two important pro-Bush groups. But Edwards has the same appeal, and he may have one other thing, namely charisma. According to the Lichtman keys theory, the only way the opposition party can influence the election is by nominating someone with charisma or a national hero. Edwards could be charismatic; he reminds me vaguely of JFK and he has conducted an upbeat campaign. For that reason I will probably vote for Edwards.