It has taken 20 years, but I have finally voted in a presidential primary that matters. This is the first time that the candidate I have been supporting has still been on the ballot and actively campaigning by the date of the Illinois primary. That candidate, as I have said before, is Obama.
I encourage you, if your state’s primary is today, to get out there and vote for Barack, as many times as they’ll let you. Pull the lever, punch the chad, touch the screen, or, as we do here in Cook County, take the little felt tip pen and the giant piece of floppy cardboard and carefully fill in the missing segment of the black arrow pointing to your preferred candidate.
Who comes up with these voting systems?
Today’s Tribune had a letter with the weirdest criticism of Obama’s candidacy that I have seen so far: a letter writer from Norfolk, Virginia, wrote the Chicago Tribune to complain that Obama should serve out his full Senate term — “One would think that he would serve at least one term as senator representing the people of Illinois; I suspect they expected him to be their senator for six years.”
I don’t pretend to speak for the entire state, but most of the people I know here who voted for Barack in 2006, myself included, hoped then that he would run for president in 2008, and are voting for him today. Don’t worry about our feelings being hurt by his attempt to leap onto a larger stage. We’re right there with him.
Gotta run to court. More rejection slips tonight while I’m watching the election coverage.
The Unfocused Life 