I had been planning to write some two-page rant about how the United States of America is at a crossroads and that it is pivotal that we elect Barack Obama as our next President of the United States as well as giving him a strong mandate for change.
Hey, everyone. It's been a whole since I posted a blog entry. I meant to post something after Obama clinched the nomination last June and after Obama accepted the nomination in August, but I have realized that action speaks louder than words, so I’ve been phonebanking and canvassing instead. But I do have something to write now.
Congratulations to Senator Barack Obama with his resounding win in the Iowa caucuses, and to all the volunteers and campaign workers that made this possible.
Even though, since the release of the Des Moines Register poll on Tuesday and the second alignment endorsements of Bill Richardson and Dennis Kucinich, I had been feeling that a win in the Iowa was inevitable for Obama, this still is a great victory and, most importantly, exceeded expectations by turning what was a very close race between the top three candidates into a "thumpin’" by Obama, winning 38% of the delegates to Edwards’s 30% and Clinton’s 29%. For the handicappers in the media and political sphere, all whom expected this to be a very tight finish and could have easily have been a politically inconsequential three-way tie, this was a huge landslide for Barack Obama.
Barath’s Obama blog has a very cogent and very excellent talking points sheet for Obama supporters to use to sway "nonviable" Richardson, Biden, Dodd, and Kucinich caucus-goers to Obama’s side for the second alignment. Here’s a link for a printable PDF of the arguments.
However, since it is just as important to try to convince Hillary and Edwards supporters to come to our side, as well as those who remain undecided right up until the start of the tallying, I have complied a couple of additional anecdotes to use against Hillary and Edwards at the caucuses tonight. My expanded arguments against these candidates can be found at my 5,000-word thesis here. But here are some things I have recently discovered about John Edwards and Hillary Clinton that I hope will be the final nail in the coffin for their respective campaigns.
I'll try to be as brief as possible in the run-up to tonight’s pivotal caucuses in Iowa. This blog entry will not as long as the 5,000 words of my argument against Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and everyone else in the Democratic field except for Barack Obama, I assure you. So let me get down to business. Who do I think will win the Iowa caucuses?
I think it is going to be Barack Obama. And that is not just because I have endorsed him for president and have donated to his campaign. It is more of an honest assessment of what I think—and deeply hope—will happen tonight. If I thought, heaven forbid, Hillary Clinton or John Edwards would win the caucuses tonight, I would admit that. But I sincerely believe that Obama is in a very good position to win the caucuses tonight.
After months of collecting my thoughts and weighing the choices of the presidential candidates available right now, I have decided who I will be endorsing for President of the United States.
Granted, my endorsement will mean very little. After all, I am a mere eighteen year old from the South Shore of Massachusetts. I have no influence over voters in Iowa, as well as in New Hampshire and South Carolina. But I’m just as engaged as they are, and just as attentive to this campaign as they are, and, sooner or later—like them—will have to come to a final decision as to who they will support in a caucus or a primary. And so, I have decided to give my full support to Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, and I will be donating to his campaign as a result.
I will have to admit, however, that my support is not absolute. He is not, in my mind, the "ideal" candidate to take on the Republican nominee next fall, but, when you think about it, nothing in life is as "ideal" as you would want and there has never been an "ideal" candidate in any election cycle. When making any sort of decision, you have to choose the best option of the choices available at that moment. For all practical purposes, you cannot reasonably reach up for a "pie in the sky," as the cliché goes. And so, even though I have real doubts that Obama has the ability to win the White House in 2008, when you look at what the rest of the Democratic field has to offer, he is realistically the best candidate to support.
