I am, without doubt, with her

Hillary Clinton has my respect, my support, and, around 6 a.m. tomorrow, she’ll have my vote.

I like Hillary. I met her years ago, and I voted for her in the 2008 Primary. I respect much of what Barack Obama did in office, but I believe Hillary would have done a better job with his first term. She’s scary smart, and, at the time, she had more experience. Obama was not the card-carrying liberal he appeared to be, and Hillary had a better track record on my Lefty issues. When Hillary lost the nomination, I went with the next best choice. I cast my vote for Obama, and it turned out okay. We’re not living in my liberal utopia, yet, but we’ve taken a few, fragile steps in that direction.

The Blues: Why I am Voting for Barack Obama

In February 2003 I was working as editor of the Cambridge Chronicle in its namesake city outside Boston.  America was a different place back then. We were still reeling from the Sept. 11 attacks and the government, led at least figuratively by George W. Bush, was milking the public’s terror for all the mandate it could muster.  In less than a month we’d have boots on the ground in Iraq with a long occupation ahead.

On Feb. 19^th, I wrote an editorial for the paper calling for George W.’s impeachment and removal from office.  (This is the only copy I can find of the thing; the typos and spelling mistakes are not mine.) Bush stayed in office, the war went ahead, and I got written up for insubordination – likely because, in those days, the Chronicle was owned by the Right-leaning Boston Herald. In the editorial I talked about the Constitution, but the refrain running through my head was: He’s making us worse.