I would like to wade into the morass of the election for one moment. There are three viable candidates, and I find them to all be appealing, capable Americans. For my first time as a functioning adult, it seems that we have an embarrassment of riches with regard to presidential candidates. Certainly, none are without their flaws and drawbacks; after all, they are politicians. However, I could comfortably cast a vote for Obama, Clinton, or McCain.

The Democrats, in particular, seem blessed. I happen to be a lazy supporter of Obama (meaning I do not do anything to advance his candidacy), but I think Hillary Clinton would do a good job, as well. I do not care for her personally, but I think the last eight years have established that voting based upon hypothetically enjoying a candidate’s company over a beer is simply foolish. Furthermore, we have two candidates on the Democratic side from demographic groups generally underrepresented in the halls of power in the United States, i.e. a woman and a man of mixed race.

This should be a time of hope for Americans yet the amount of vitriol being injected into the Democratic primary by supporters of Clinton and Obama is staggering. There have been innuendos about race and gender, purported Islamic adherence, the blue dress, Mccarthyism, etc; the list is endless. A new poll conducted by the New York Times asserts that the acrimony is causing supporters from both sides to state they would choose McCain over the rival Democratic candidate. Who are these rabid supporters? Well, many of them are people with nothing better to do that sit around working themselves into a froth over minutiae. They have let their emotion cloud their sense. We have two candidates who differ little on policy. I have my reasons for supporting Obama, which I will not get into now, but I recognize the similarities. I just find it silly that two groups of hardcore Democrats are willing to vote against their beliefs due to an irrational distaste of the rival candidate; silly, but not surprising. I seem to remember a fear over homosexuals, abortions, and homosexuals performing abortions somehow being injected into legitimate political debate a few years back. As a result, we have a president with whom we could enjoy collectively sharing an ice cold Odouls.