I don't know who I'm going to vote for in the 08 presidential
primaries. Like the majority of Dem's, I'm leaning towards either Obama
or Hilary.

She is damn smart; I know that. She's probably smarter than
Bill--although honestly if I could get Bill back in he driver's seat
for the next three terms, I would in a second. He might be a scumbag
with the ladies, but people all over the world loved us when that guy
was our president.

It always comes up in some Spanish conversation... whether I'm in Peru,
Chile, Argentina, or Spain...as people are talking about how much they
hate "Boosh" and I'm doing my best to separate the ambitions of our
government from the mostly well-intentioned citizens of our country,
someone always chimes in with, "A mi me gusta Clin-ton! Boosh es hijo de puta, pero a mi me gusta Clin-ton."

That guy seemed to have the ability to charm the pants off of more than
just his interns and although Hilary is smart and has traveled the
world and already met most of the important world leaders during Bill's
tenure, I'm afraid she doesn't possess his charm.

Obama on the other hand, is extremely charismatic and might just have
what it takes to win back the trust of people all over the world, and
convince them that America isn't as bad as Boosh has made us look for
the past 7 years. I had heard from a friend that Obama was coming to speak at the
Bill Grahm Civic Auditorium in downtown San Francisco,  and I decided
to take a break from work and come down to see if he could sway me into
Camp Obeezy.

"I am the only one here who hasn't already made up their mind" I
thought to myself as I stood waiting to get into the venue. The line of
more than 7,000 Barack supporters stretched down around the corner and a
couple blocks down Market Street. Every one was "fired up and ready to
go"...which I quickly learned, is the campaign war call.

We got inside around 7pm and had to endure a long list of speakers I
had *not* come to see. Dusty Baker made a brief but impassioned speech
in support of Barack but there were about seven others I could have done
without. At ten to nine I was about to lose my shyza because I was
already late to met someone for drinks. Finally Obama came running up
the stairs and into the lights and it was show time.

And a showman he is. He was relaxed, confident, articulate and one of
the most passionate speakers I have ever seen. After cracking a couple
jokes about "his cousin, Dick Cheney", he launched into his 'campaign
for change,' and the rest of the speech was delivered like a sermon
from a strong, black, Southern preacher. He was electrifying and as he
moved from one subject to another I noticed that people around me were
tearing up. It made me realize just how devastating the last seven
years have been to people's morale regarding where we're headed as a
country and just how powerful this prospect of sweeping change is--as a
platform.

And the changes would be dramatic under Obama. As he went over the
issues one by one, each was paired with a firm commitment--not wishy
washy bullshit like "we have to improve health care"--but a specific
action that couldn't be interpreted as anything else.

When I am elected President, I will...

Get every troop out of Iraq within 16 months

Strike down the Patriot Act

Not allow there to be genocide on our planet

Negotiate with Iran

Close down Guantanamo immediately

Listening to this stuff you say to yourself, "This guy's not joking
around. He's actually going do all this shit regardless of what
Washington thinks." These are big issues too...many of them are risky
and still, I couldn't help but think that this is exactly what our
country needs: a risk taker--someone to really shake things up, who
isn't scared of pissing anyone off in the process.

I see Hilary and the other Democratic candidates doing too much by the
books and by the numbers...being too cautious and making sure to
fulfill all of the obligations to lobbyists and other politicians. And
that is what really stuck out to me. This guy is the least "political"
candidate I've ever seen. He's raised most of his campaign money from
small donations given by tens of thousands of ordinary people and he thinks he knows
exactly what to do in order to restore greatness to our country.

I haven't made a decision to vote for Obama and I plan on watching the
debates closely and waiting till the last minute before making up my mind--but I will
say this: I was very impressed with Obama and if he gets his shot, I think he has the
potential to make one of the greatest Presidents of our time.

What do you guys think?