Hillary makes it semi-official.

I have been neglecting this site. Not so much because I had nothing to say but over the last year or so, there have just been few words to describe my feelings. Mostly fear and loathing, with a guarded sense of optimism creeping in last November. A sinking, squishing feeling to be sure...

Hillary announced her exploratory committee this morning. Personally, I think she would be a good president, but... I think she could get the nomination, but would America vote for a woman president? Mostly, yes, I hope. But there is still a small percentage of chauvinists out there who would not, and in what is likely to be another squeaker in 2008, this small percentage could cost the Democrats the election. Is it fair to say that she should not run because of this? Who knows? On the other hand, the Billary haters who would rather eat their own colon before voting for a Clinton probably wouldn't vote Democrat regardless of the candidate (Joe L., though technically independent now, possibly excepted) , so I don't think they will be much of a factor either way.

The main reason, at this point, that I do not fully support a Hillary run for 2008, though, is that if she won, that would make it 24-28 years where the U.S. had no presidents without the last name of Bush or Clinton. This, I feel, is rather disturbing. Now don't get me wrong, Bill Clinton always will be my president. Could he have done a better job? Of course. But in my lifetime, he has set the bar for the executive branch pretty high. For me, thinking that we might get a Clinton Part 2, then, is actually pretty exciting. But at what cost? It all falls into some strange gray area between political symbolism and realpolitik. In the end, I would hope, that if Hillary won, our democracy would be a lot less distressed than it is at the moment, and that our nation's role in the world would be relatively rehabilitated.

Still, I would expect, for the moment, that Obama and Edwards would accomplish both of these goals just as well as Hillary. For now, they are at the top of my list, though I am probably months off from picking my pony. Both need to show me a few things first, and there are others in the race that remain enigmas to me at this point in time. So, while the lines are being drawn for 2008, it is still going to be a few more months before the race begins for real. And in a sad commentary on the state of the nation, I do think a black man would have a better chance in '08 than a woman. Yucky, though, that we still even need to consider these things.

It will be interesting, for sure. And for old politics junkies like me, it is going to be a damn fun couple of years (election-wise, at least). Give us Universal Health Care and I will love you forever.