T-minus five days and counting....

The Ohio primary is only a few days off and the contest is heating up big time. On the Republican side, there's no question that McCain will win Ohio, since he's more or less become the de facto Republican nominee, but there's still a tight race between Hillary and Obama. Some polls here have Hillary leading by double digits, others have the race narrowed to a mere few percentage points, but any way you cut it, it's going to be an interesting primary election day. I've been inundated by phone calls and mailers urging me to vote for Hillary and so far, I've only gotten one Obama call from the local Portage County Obama headquarters, and that was from my friend Judy Kirman, who called me yesterday. I don't know if this is because I've more or less already expressed who I am going to vote for or what, but it seems like Hillary is really desperate to win Ohio to keep her candidacy viable. While I think that she'd be a good President, though, I've not been impressed by her campaign. She seems so disingenuous to me somehow, as if she's acting everything out instead of being a real person. She also had the gall to accuse Obama of lifting lines from another politician when she's done a lot of that herself. For example, at the end of a recent debate, Hillary said, "You know, whatever happens, we're going to be fine. You know, we have strong support from our families and our friends. I just hope that we'll be able to say the same thing about the American people. And that's what this election should be about." In a December 13 Democratic debate, John Edwards said, "What's not at stake are any of us. All of us are going to be just fine no matter what happens in this election. But what's at stake is whether America is going to be fine." Stealing directly from lines used by Obama, Hillary has been saying, "We are fired up and we are ready to go, because we know that America is ready for change." Change you can Xerox, indeed! So I have a hard time finding anything really genuine about her when she can't even use her own lines in her speeches and freely borrows from other candidates. That speaks to me of a kind of dishonesty that tarnishes my ability to trust her. On the other hand, when I hear Obama speaking, even extemporaneously, I get the feeling that he's speaking very genuinely and from the heart, like you're seeing the real person. He's funny, self deprecating and inspiring. And that's something I can trust when choosing a candidate. Besides, poll numbers show Obama beating McCain while McCain could easily beat Hillary, so when it comes down to pure electability, we've got to choose the candidate who can win against the opposition.

IS NADER A REPUBLICAN OPERATIVE?
There was a letter to the Editor in today's Akron Beacon Journal wondering how much the Republicans paid Ralph Nader to run for President. It really made me wonder if there might be any truth to that. After all, the "Obamentum" (another nifty little word invented by the media in yet another one of their clever sound bytes) is hard to stop, and polls are showing Obama being able to beat McCain. Somehow, I wouldn't be at all surprised to hear that the GOP is so afraid of losing power that they're willing to convince Nader to run in order to divide the liberal vote enough to hand the White House back to the Republicans. I just can't trust anybody anymore who claims any ties to the current administration. They have proven to be the most dishonest, corrupt and power hungry administration in our nation's history, and since they apparently haven't been able to find a satisfactory "heir apparent" to Dubya, it seems that they might be willing to settle for anybody, just to hang on to power and to keep their illegal war in Iraq going indefinitely. Somehow, I smell Karl Rove all over this thing. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to find out that there's been an under-the-table deal between Nader and the current administration to undermine the Democratic candidacies enough to hand power back to the GOP. I don't know, call me cynical, but I just don't trust anybody anymore who wants that much power and is desperate enough to resort to any tactic possible. I just hope that I am wrong and that people recall what happened in 2000 that ended up handing the Presidency to Bush. I hope that people repudiate Nader enough to make him irrelevant in this election. Perhaps his late entry into the race will nullify any chances he has of splitting the Democratic vote enough to affect the electoral outcome. One can only hope.......