Super Tuesday VT-- with bonus Update!

We finally get to have our primary today, well after most everyone else and completely overshadowed by Texas and Ohio. At least I did hear that the Obama campaign was focusing on our little state because if they can get up to 70% from 60% of the vote here it could make a huge difference for them. According to his website, their goal is 1,500,000 calls to registered voters by today. To achieve this goal, I was personally called 4 times in 3 days. Whatever makes them feel better. Three of the calls came from live people, and the fourth was a recorded message from Barack Obama himself which I am convinced was actually Dave Chapelle doing his white guy impression.

The voting in town is always a little useless, featuring many offices which read "vote for no more than x candidates" with there being less than x to choose from. At least we have a decent race for Select Board, who are the people who get to decide if we can be naked downtown and important things like that. This year we also have the vote the whole nation is excited about/embarrassed by/disapproving of. Yes, today I get to vote to arrest Bush and Cheney for war crimes and general nogoodery. I can't wait! Considering we are the only state in the nation that they have not deigned to visit, I can't imagine this will have much impact. It's not like they pop up here to go to Mocha Joe's every weekend and we can nab them then.

For the presidential primary, I'll have my choice of Republican, Liberty Union and Democratic tickets. I will be choosing the Democratic. I've spent a lot of time deliberating this one. I've always wanted to see a woman president, and I remember being very excited about Geraldine Ferraro's run for VP. But I also was a big supporter of Jesse Jackson's run for president at the time. And truly, I think that anyone could do better than the current administration. A friend was telling me about a piece Gloria Steinem wrote concerning black men historically getting more equal treatment before women do. And that sucks, but mostly because we should all be getting equal treatment anyway so it shouldn't be a matter of first. But all things being equal, I'm not looking at these candidates for their superficial, unchangeable traits like gender or race. I'm basing my vote almost entirely on the votes they made regarding Iraq and what I think their decisions say about them. And, therefore, I will be voting for Barack Obama today. Jeremy will be voting for him simply for his voice, but that's his decision to make.

***Update***
Since I originally posted this, I have both gone to vote and read the Gloria Steinem piece. (Thank you to listmaker for the link.)
1. Steinem says this: This country can no longer afford to choose our leaders from a talent pool limited by sex, race, money, powerful fathers and paper degrees. It’s time to take equal pride in breaking all the barriers. We have to be able to say: “I’m supporting her because she’ll be a great president and because she’s a woman.” And I would like to say that, but I'm not sure I agree with the first part of the statement. I don't think feminism should be about supporting a woman just because she's a woman, but because she's a person who can do a good job at whatever it is that needs doing. Had I voted for Hillary Clinton today, I would have been trying to make an empty point. That being said, if she ends up being the Democratic candidate she will be my choice come November and I will feel satisfied with that. But given the choice, which I was today, I would choose Obama.
2. Silly thing on our ballot today, I was asked to vote for someone named "Pickles" Bedard. What a town! And in case you are interested, I took a peek at the exit poller's clipboard and way more people are voting to indict the Pres and VP than not.