The best thing about American politics is how nearly none of our individual votes actually count. Here’s my summary of the past few presidential elections.

In 2000, I wasn’t old enough to vote in the Republican primary. Even if I had, Bush would have won Texas no matter what. My vote wouldn’t have mattered.

In November of 2000, I was old enough to vote. I had the choice to vote in Massachusetts or Texas. Either way, my vote wouldn’t matter. Massachusetts would go to Gore and Texas would go for Bush. My vote wouldn’t have mattered. I voted for Nader. (I was in college! I didn’t know better!)

In November of 2004, I was still in Massachusetts. The primary didn’t matter, as John Kerry had it in the bag and there was no Republican challenge. The general didn’t matter either. Hooray.

In November of 2006, I lived in Illinois. Democrats across the board. Nearly everyone runs unopposed here. Vote didn’t matter.

February 2008. Does my vote matter yet? Kinda. Illinois has an open primary and both parties have actual contests and both parties have one candidate I really, really like and one candidate I cannot stand. What to do? I thought about it a lot, and I made up my mind and voted early. I voted in the Republican primary for McCain. I can’t imagine Obama losing here, so hopefully I won’t be wrong. However, I still felt a little weird about it, so to make up for my McCain vote, I’m going to Obama HQ on Saturday to volunteer. Putting my mouth where my money is, so to speak. I think it’s a good compromise.

It is a little odd that I almost equally support two candidates that have such different views. I’m pretty moderate, maybe I shift a tiny bit to the right, but only barely. Typically, I agree with Obama on most social/freedom issues (health care notwithstanding), and McCain on most other things, especially Iraq. But, despite these differences, I think they’d make equally good Presidents. A president can only pass laws that Congress sends to them and can only nominate people that Congress will approve. Tone will be important, and I think both McCain and Obama have a respect for the legislative branch that the current administration does not have. Also, for all of McCain’s talk about social conservatism, I don’t think they will be issues he will push while in the White House. Maybe it should be a strike against him that he pandered to the further right wing of his party, but it’s a primary compromise I’ll deal with if it can give us a Republican nominee that isn’t completely awful.

Typically, I agree with Jon Stewart that a McCain/Obama election would be good for the country. I think both men are ready and will do a great job, the trick is just making sure its one of them.

UPDATE: Apparently Curt Schilling agrees with me also.  On Obama:

“The other person of unparalleled character in this upcoming election” (link)

and

“It appears to me, in my opinion anyway, that the two people I feel like I can trust the most, that care the most, and that make me believe in them the most, are Senator Obama and Senator McCain. I am hopeful that will be the choice we all have to make in 12 months or so.” (link)

No just a great pitcher!  Schilling also does a lot to support ALS Research, a cause I’ve been peripherally involved in for the past year.

Despite the fact that some of my favorite people have strong affinity to Florida, I’ve always thought of it as kind of…  well, the worst place in America.  Like most of my opinions, I don’t have much of a reason for not liking it so much, but it doesn’t change the fact that I think it’s a weird, weird place.  That said, this past Tuesday, Florida did us all a huge favor.

What I’m referring to, of course, is the people of Florida giving their 114 delegates to the (tied for) best man to be President.  Yeah, I’m referring to John McCain.  He’s won New Hampshire, South Carolina, and now Florida…  and maybe one that I’m forgetting, and I think it’s awesome.  Florida through through the fakeness of Romney and the sleeziness of Giuliani and made McCain their choice.  That is fantastic.   Seriously, really really fantastic.

So now Giuliani is out and has endorsed (I think) McCain, who can now take that victory into this Tuesday’s primaries and hopefully convert it into an overwhelming advantage.  Hopefully.  I still don’t have a lot of confidence in the average Republican primary voter, but if McCain can win even in Florida’s closed primary, I think he’s in decent shape.  With the support of California’s governor, McCain has a great shot in California.  Of course, Schwarzenegger  is no Chuck Norris, but hopefully he’ll make some votes go McCain’s way.

In other recent news, I’m stoked to see John Edwards out of the picture on the Democratic side.  I think pretty much everyone expected he’d stay in through Super Tuesday and try to add to his pocketful of delegates, so it’s tough to guess what’s really going on.  My instinct is that a lot of Democratic voters that supported Edwards will mostly go to Obama, but I could very well be wrong.  We’ll find out next week.

So Obama has won Iowa.

Hooray.

No, seriously, hooray!

I guess it wasn’t that shocking, really. I mean, the last few weeks showed him more or less on the top, but nobody put him at 38% over 30 for the other two. So I guess that was shocking, in the mildest sense of the word. But, at the same time, it’s a little bit shocking. There’s a sense, I think, that people are sort of latently racist, that a black candidate can’t win, but I think that feeling has to subside after a substantial win in a substantially white state. I’m really excited. I don’t like to be, because I don’t want to have to fall that hard if whatshername ends up in the real election and I have to vote for a third party again. Nonetheless, I think about the possibility of watching him give his inaugural address, and I get excited. I feel like my entire life I’ve watched better suited candidates give concession speeches, or just not run. But this could really be something to make Americans proud, to dispel the myth that we’re a country of illiterates. So that’s exciting.

What else is exciting? A bit. Even the other race was sort of heartening, seeing Romney not win. Even though Huckabee is probably the worst sorta mainstream Republican candidate we’ve ever seen, it seems like a good stroke against MR. Despite his fourth place finish, behind jackass-in-tortoise-clothing Thompson, McCain surely benefits from Romney’s loss. My biggest hope is that Obama continues his victories in New Hampshire, but I’d almost trade that for a McCain win there. A McCain-Obama general election would be the most inspiring thing I’ve seen in my life. To actually choose between two candidates with unquestioned integrity and skill would make me so proud to be an American. That sounds corny, to talk about being proud to be an American, but it’s the truth. I would be proud, and I would be so happy to be proud. On 30 Rock this season, or maybe last season, Tina Fey makes a joke about telling people she voted for Obama when she really voted for McCain. If that joke can become a real decision, it’s a gigantic leap forward for all of us.

There’s still a long way to go, and I’m not entirely confident that NH residents know their right from left, nor from wrong, nor from peanut butter. But hopefully they will make the right choices, and hopefully the rest of the country will, too. To be able to choose people based on their ideas and not worry about which one is less terrible is so fantastic. Man… This could be a good time. Of course, we could still have a Clinton/Romney face off, in which case my vote likely goes to that crazy lady from Georgia or wherever with the Green Party. At least it wouldn’t be the first time I voted for a crazy green.

Also, I had a great holiday season, and tomorrowish I’ll let you in on some New Years Resolutions.

…Actually that’s not a newsflash at all.  It’s old news.  Really old.

That said, the Clinton campaign has brought it up, cause, you know…  um..  actually, I’m not sure why.  Probably  has something to do with all the new polls that show people are starting to realize how not awesome she is.  That said, let’s pretend that it’s not old news and see what we think.

Now, those who read this are probably familiar with my extensive history of drug use.   Okay, so maybe it’s not that extensive, and it’s not really what people consider drugs.  So I guess my opinion doesn’t really count.  It maybe it counts even more.  So he used drugs 20 years ago.  It’s not a big deal.  His having used drugs probably puts him in with the majority of the US, especially those born after 1960 or so.  I’m struggling to come up with a reason it’s important.  Clinton was a Republican when she was the same age that Obama was when he used drugs, the other Clinton pretended to use drugs at the same age, and Bush was using in the late 70s.  Now she’s a pinko, he’s…  well, he’s whatever, and the last he is..  well, also whatever.  I can’t even come up with a reason why that would be important, though I wish I could, cause I’m sure it’d be easy to rebut.

The Clinton dude who brought it up suggested people would wonder whether he sold it, when the last time was, whether he’s ever worked the streets to pay for his habits.  I don’t think that’s the case.  Americans, I believe, love the idea of redemption.  They love people who are close to failing, or who fail, but then get things together and succeed.  It’s one of our national qualities, I think.

Anyhow, it is old news.  The fact that Obama brought it up when he wrote his first book, when he was years away from being on the national scene, speaks a lot.  It wasn’t a skeleton let out of the closet for political reasons; it was an admission used to tell a story.  If anything, I think it makes him more appealing, realizing that he had the sort of existential pain/confusion that most people have, and he was able to overcome it.  So, again…  Clinton is not awesome*, Obama is, in fact, pretty awesome.  How’s that for brilliant political analysis?

(*- There’s actually nothing here that proves, or even suggests, that she’s not awesome.  Still, it’s true.)