The Turning Tide?

I've been pretty certain so far, that Hillary Clinton will become the Democratic nominee and that she will then be elected President by the people of the United States. I personally wouldn't have any qualms about that except that she would be about as polarizing as Bush was. But my feeling was simply that there was a wider base that would support her.

My observations of the current election, bar the news come from a very, very small part of the country. In two relatively well off precincts in Oakland and Berkeley, I had in the past weeks noticed that about 25% of the houses had Clinton signs in the front yards, about 5% Kucinich signs, about 5% signs for Edwards and about 15% had Obama signs.

Yesterday, returning to both those areas - in the line of work and not as a scientific attempt at polling - I noticed that about 40% of the houses had signs that read: 'Obama for President.'I'm pretty sure that the number of houses with signs for Clinton had diminished but certainly, every other house almost had a sign supporting Barack Obama.

I appreciate that there's nothing accurate about this and it by no means reflects the entire country, but maybe it does signify a reversal as more people turn to the hope that real change will come. On this day, 'Super Tuesday', it will be certainly very interesting to see the vote distribution. There are so many factors involved with so many ghosts riding this wave - how many women will vote for Hillary because she's a woman and how many women will do exactly the opposite? Internalized oppression leads to strange choices and the same can be said for Barack. It is almost impossible to really predict how people will vote. D, an African female friend wanted to vote for Edwards! She will probably be voting for Obama she said. Either way, when the votes are cast, these primaries and the coming election will be electrifying. For the first time in the history of this country, either a woman or an African American will be the Democratic nominee.

I am convinced that one of those two will be the next President of the United States and that in itself and of itself, will be an incredible victory over prejudice and chauvenism and will mark a new era in this country.

Having read many posts here about the candidates, I've come to appreciate that Clinton, who will most certainly alienate the right despite being pretty conservative, may not be the best choice for America, but maybe, truly, the one person who can bring this country together again is indeed Barack Obama.