CODA to Super/Shrove Tuesday

I picked up my daughters at Starbucks on Seventh Avenue, with Mr. Obama's supporters combing the streets, joyful but perhaps a little too insistent on the virtue of their choice. My daughters told me that someone said to them "Tell your parents when they vote, to vote for Obama." They responded, "We are supporting Hillary" to which the campaigner responded snarkily/sarcastically, "Oh, you are old enough to vote ?" Most of the folks campaigning for Mr. Obama that I saw throughout the day were young and white (not that there is anything wrong with that).

Granted, there were not a lot of Hillary supporters on the streets. But maybe, like me, they were working, picking up their kids, or finding it enough of a challenge to get through the day and make it out to vote, instead of being fortunate enough to have the freedom to spend the day campaigning. Another blog observed that (I paraphrase) 'high school educated, Hispanic and working people' were the primary supporters of Ms. Clinton. Well, we fit only part of that profile and we supported Hillary.

We went to our polling place, the school on Coney Island Avenue near Newkirk, and there were still lots of people on the street, again, mostly young, mostly white, some with kids in strollers, all for Mr. Obama. Honestly, it felt a little intimidating, all of the young white campaigners, a little too eager and too insistent. In America, come election day, you don't have to explain your vote to anyone. It felt a little like being confronted by Jacobins on the street during the fall of the ancien regime. Did I need to look around to make sure there was no guillotine ? I thought the "enemy" was the GOP, the party that has wrecked the economy and squandered America's political capital and post 9/11 goodwill, not another Democratic candidate.

The girls (who are 13) came into the voting booth with me. At first I thought I had a problem with the machine. None of the Democratic levers would work. Ironically, I think the poll watcher had me pegged (erroneously) by my demographics (white guy in his 50s) as a Republican. She twiddled with the knobs outside and we were ready to vote. The girls symbolically helped me to pull the lever for Hillary Rodham Clinton.

I have done my part and voted for the candidate of my choice. I still hope Ms. Clinton gets the nomination although I am concerned about all of those Hillary-haters out there in both parties. On her war vote, yep, it was a mistake, but a lot of us, in the time after 9/11 were concerned about WMDs, etc. Who knew we were being lied to by the most cynical US Chief Executive (and Vice Chief Executive) of modern times. Unfortunately, a lot of people were pro-war, I dare say even many of the supporters of Mr. Obama. As a father of a teenage son, I don't think the 100 year war advocated now by Mr. McCain, after years of the Iraq conflagration, is a good thing. I didn't support the Iraq War either but I am not an intelligence analyst, so, I like many people I think, second guessed my own reluctance to beat the drum for war. It is safe to say that Ms. Clinton, along with many other elected officials and citizens, do not now support the war, and realize that the Iraq entanglement is terrible. We are all clear that the Bush administration has made a mess of the country (Iraq and our own). Mr. Obama, who was not in the Senate at that time, never had to actually face that vote. But it is a moot point, who knows how he would have voted.

That said, I am totally prepared to vote for Mr. Obama should he be the eventual Democratic candidate, whether he runs again Messrs. McCain, Huckabee, or Bloomberg. The Democratic Party needs to be returned to the White House. We cannot stand even one more term of the Republican Party, regardless of who that candidate is. They have made a muck of it and must pay the price.

However, I am very concerned that many of those voters, in their obvious enthusiasm for Mr. Obama, will be unable to support Ms Clinton should she be selected as the Democratic candidate, whether as the presumptive candidate in March, or at the Democratic convention later this year. I was on the fence like a lot of voters, but I made my decision. Perhaps it is loyalty to Ms. Clinton as our State's Junior Senator. Just as Illinois supported Mr. Obama, it appears many New Yorkers supported Mrs. Clinton. I could not "drink the kool aid" and go against my generally very positive feelings for Ms. Clinton, so I supported her. But, as I said, come the fall, my loyalties are with the Democratic candidate, in order to defeat the GOP, despite the fact that I am an Aging (but not average !), White Guy, which I guess is a Republican demographic.

Therefore, I found it very disturbing to read that Ms. Michelle Obama, Mr. Obama's First Lady, indicated that "she would have to think hard" about supporting Ms. Clinton should her husband not be victorious and should Ms. Clinton be chosen as the Democratic Presidential candidate. What is that all about ? That is an echo of the Conservatives who are threatening to become "Suicide Voters" and vote for Hillary Rodham Clinton and against John McCain should he be the Republican candidate. Something uncool is happening. As I said in my earlier blog post, things do not bode well for the future of this country if the Democrats can't get it together, after the disastrous Bush Presidency.

I doubt that Mrs. Clinton would agree to run for Vice President should Mr. Obama get the nomination. Perhaps she would be more valuable as a leader in the US Senate than as a (traditionally powerless) vice president. . But I am certain that she would support Mr. Obama fully and unreservedly. I would be very surprised if she did not.

However, I am concerned that the same may not be true for Mr. Obama and his supporters.

--Brooklyn Beat