I was going to post some stuff about the Obama rally held by students today at Binghamton University, complete with pictures, but the turnout was lower than the Sunday event in downtown Binghamton, and the crummy indoor lighting meant my pictures suffered. I’ll try taking pictures of lines at the polls tomorrow (hoping there are some long ones).
I’m having difficulty sleeping, hence the late night post. My dorm room is extremely stuffy (they keep the thermostats at 68° and we have no control over them) and my brain functions are on overdrive without the use of coffee. I’m plagued by a combination of: unusual anxiety over today’s election, how I’m going to try to keep my student magazine afloat this semester, anticipation for my impending graduation, and self-criticism about social skills that have improved only marginally over the last few years. Yes, my mind’s all over the grid right now.
I’m not sure why I’m so anxious about this primary. Perhaps it’s just all the hype that’s been fabricated by the mass media — maybe it’s finally gotten under my skin. With polls showing Obama and Clinton in a dead heat going into Super Tuesday, I’m quite jumpy. Maybe it’s my overactive desire to see the underdog — my guy Obama — take the spoils so I can laugh at my parents via video chat. Look, I’ll vote for whoever gets the Democratic nomination, but I deeply want Obama to win. This desire, coupled with the fact that this race is so close, is scary. Granted, I did more for Kerry in 2004 than I’ve done for Obama (I canvassed in Scranton for Kerry, a candidate I liked only because he wasn’t Bush), but Obama is someone that I truly like.
However, I’m also looking beyond Super Tuesday and beyond the Democratic National Convention, to the race for the general election. It seems pretty clear, from my perspective, that McCain will get the Republican nomination, unless he does something monumentally stupid. Based on the speech I saw him give in Boston yesterday, it almost looks as if his running mate could be Joe Lieberman. Politically, it’s a good move, since Lieberman would be able to pull more moderates to the Republican camp. It seemed like a similar philosophy back in 2000.
Regardless, we’d still have two guys who’d keep us in a senseless war/occupation for who-knows-how-long. We can’t let that happen.