THE DREAM TEAM OR WAR ETERNAL?

Isn't it exciting to have a Black man and a White woman in the Presidential race nearing the finish line at a dead heat? It shows great progress in this country that either of them ever got on the ticket as a potential leader. I understand that there may be some problems in trying to sort it all out and come up with a winner. The Democratic election process is as confusing learning to write a letter in Chinese. Evidently, at the end of it all, in case of a tie, they have these people called Super Delegates, who choose the winner of the race. There are hundreds of Super Delegates and I don't know what they do if their votes end in a tie. Perhaps they never thought of that.

It seems to me that the winner ought to be the winner. If one of them has one more delegate than the other, that one should win. On the other hand, it is possible to have more votes than the other candidate yet have less delegates. This is beginning to sound suspiciously like the time when I took a Civics Class in High School and had to understand the Electoral Vote.

There was a boy in my Civics Class named Wendell Cocking and HE understood the Electoral Vote. He understood elaborate mathematical problems and could parse every sentence, as well, so the fact that he also understood election procedure was not surprising. So, when I could not answer a question about the Electoral Vote in class, the teacher, whom we students had dubbed Flint Face, because of his stern, unsmiling demeanor, ordered "Mr. Cocking" to explain it to me. Mr. Cocking did so. Then I was told to stand up and explain to the class what Mr. Cocking had taught me, which was, to be truthful, nothing. I was as ignorant of the intricacies of the Electoral Vote as I had been at the beginning of class.

It has been suggested that Clinton and Obama team up to be President and Vice President. This, some have said, would be the Dream Team! Since this will probably not sit well with either of them, perhaps they should be Co-Presidents. Another suggestion has been that they toss a coin in the air and Heads becomes President. Or, we might run an American Idol-President contest and have people phone in the winner, asking Simon, Randy and Paula to manage the whole affair.

Somehow, by late Spring at least, a Democratic Candidate must be chosen. You have your choice. You can either risk being called a racist or a sexist, take your pick. You have to vote for one of them, there is no getting away from it. If you don't, we'll be stuck with John McCain for the next four years.

John McCain is seventy-two years old and a product of the old school of thinking. Because he comes from a military family, he believes wholeheartedly in the honor of War. Five years as a Prisoner of War and going through all kinds of misery like torture and confinement seems to have taught him nothing. He is very willing to send our children to the battleground.

At seventy-two, take it from me, your mind may be sharp as a stiletto, but your body has a few aches and twinges. As the years pass, you have a tendency to wake up at odd hours to use the bathroom, and you get drowsy in the mid-afternoon. I can just see John McCain using his walker to reach the Oval Office, or nodding off while reading the first five pages of the 900-page Patriot Act. Let's face it. The responsibilities of the Presidency has aged every occupant of the White House so far. If it ages John McCain, he may be the first President to be 76 and look 120.

McCain used to be very moderate, and is still accused of being so by the radical element of the Republican Party. He has tried to appear a bit radical himself, professing a sudden devotion to religion, hugging preachers instead of babies, talking about how conservative he is. But he isn't conservative enough for the radicals. They want the Huckabee type of person, one who would willingly rip up the Constitution and replace it with the Bible, after first blacking out the Thou Shalt Not Kill part of it.

Hillary Clinton has a lot of what political pundits call "baggage." In her case, the baggage consists of her husband, Bill, who made the mistake of dallying with a pretty intern wearing a blue dress. I always suspected that to be a set-up, frankly, because most women do not save dirty dresses, but either wash them or send them to the cleaners. Monica Lewinsky saved her dress, so the Republicans went into a tizzy and Congress impeached Clinton.

To this day, Republicans harp on Clinton as though he is the Devil Incarnate. They even have this Internet e-mail that lists just about every dead person in the United States and accuse Bill Clinton of killing them all. The blue dress has become their flag and even the mercy of God does not seem to be possible for Bill Clinton, even though the Republicans have forgiven their own for every sin possible. Tom DeLay, who amassed so much money while he was in Congress that he can afford his own defense fund, still shows up on television, a respected Republican, and no one ever mentions that miserable Strom Thurmond, who cussed out Blacks while he committed statutory rape with a 15-year-old maid and fathered a child with her.

Let's admit it, even Thomas Jefferson had his Sally, with a huge brood of children. If we start worrying about Congressional and Presidential dalliances, every idol we have in this country may fall to the ground in shame. We'll be left with Ralph Nader, who seems to be the only person with no faults.

This, then, is Hillary's baggage; White men blaming a woman for her husband's errors. This is unfair to her and doesn't ring any Brownie points for American men, who can sometimes act like gorillas thumping their chests and proclaiming themselves as lords and masters. I admire Hillary Clinton for her intelligence, her courage and her grace under fire. It takes guts to do what she is doing. It takes a thick skin to know that those prejudiced folks are calling her Shrillery and Hitlery and names that are much worse and that belong on a bathroom wall, but how do you change the minds of macho idiots who need an ego-boost by attacking a woman?

Anyway, there is a certain excitement about this race and, judging from the Media that seems to select our Candidates for us, the winner will be Barack Obama. I am okay with this choice, because either of these candidates will be light years better than what we have in office today. Either of them will end this Occupation in Iraq. Either of them will work on a National Health Care program to provide all citizens with basic care. Either of them will provide security for this country from its enemies. Either of them will revise the current trade laws and halt the flow of jobs from this country. Either of them will try to balance the budget and whittle down that National Debt.

That said, since I am happy with either Obama or Clinton, I can sit back and watch the show, which is very amusing and filled with celebrities, like Oprah and Arnold. It's like budget night at the old Eagle Theater, without the free dish. My decisions made, I can flip channels and follow the antics of Brittney Spears without a care in the world as to which candidate wins the post. The real worry will come later, when it is a two-person race, Republican and Democrat, and John McCain tries to lead us into another four years of Bushonomics and War! Then the real fun begins!