This presidential campaign seems to have gone on forever. I was a Hillary fan and really thought she had the nomination sewed up. Then came primary season and Barack Obama showed a lot of promise and got a lot of votes. Also Bill Clinton’s meanderings of speech did not help Hillary. I wonder if he really ever wanted her to be elected president. All along I thought Obama was a fluke. I thought that he would be a flash in the pan and would fizzle out like an old Fourth of July firecracker.
I remember an April conversation with my sister. We discussed the campaign and the relative merits of both Hillary and Barack. I remember saying that I thought he was a very good talker and that he had a charismatic presence. But I assured my younger sister that he would be a senator for a very long time. That may have been wishful thinking on my part but looking back I really thought it was the truth.
It is two weeks until the election and Barack Obama is leading in the polls. Newscasters tell us that frequently though the point spread changes. It appears that all the media except for Fox News thinks Obama will win. He has an overabundance of money and he can spend it on the campaign however he chooses. McCain is not as lucky. He is using federal funding and he must follow spending guidelines. Perhaps that is why he picked Sarah Palin. He probably realized that she would get a lot of press and thus he would get a lot of free advertising. They do seem to follow her wherever she goes and this Halloween I am sure her likeness will be a top costume.
I think the race is closer than most people think. John McCain is a lot like Hillary so some of her disillusioned backers may vote for him. But to me it seems that the pendulum has swung. It did that on the twenty-fourth of September when Barack Obama decided not to suspend his campaign because of the financial crisis. That is when I decided to vote for him. If that had not happened, it might have taken me until Election Day to decide. I thought Obama seemed presidential on that day and in that moment.
Will Americans decide to vote for a half white younger man for president? We will know the answer in two weeks. For right now we all need to remember to go to the polls and vote.
