Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Voted for Obama, My Head Triumphant over my Heart

I literally decided on the way to the booth, having more or less made up my mind last night to go with Hillary because I dont like being part of trends (in this case the surge for Obama with Caroline Kennedy, Maria et al)and because I found myself emotionally torn up and in acute sympathy with Hillary every time I turned on the TV and heard about polls showing Obama surging. Screw it, I said, I may not be able to rationally justify a Hillary vote, but, for whatever reason, I feel great affection for her and thats good enough. So I was 99 percent of the way to a Hillary vote, but it turned out that I had plenty of time to re-think everything because when I arrived at my usual voting place at South Mountain School, I was informed that they had stopped holding elections there a couple of years ago. So I called Millburn Township and was told I was supposed to vote at St. Stephen's Church on Main Street, but when I got there, the volunteers couldnt locate my name and said my polling place was actually the town library.

So the whole riggamarole took almost an hour, and by the time I arrived at the library, I had plenty of time to reconsider and was suddenly grabbed by the consideration that, at least right now, Barack looks more electible against McCain. If the GOPers were about to nominate Romney or some other ultra-righty, then I could afford to vote my heart with Hillary, but given McCain's appeal to independents, Barack's even stronger appeal to same and Hillary being such a catalytic agent in firing up the Republicans, Obama suddenly appeared the only responsible vote. Plus, I totally bought his argument during the last debate that his 'right from the start' stance on the war puts him in a stronger position to push back against McCain's "white flag" demagoguery, while Hillary, having already voted to authorize the war and being afraid of looking soft, might try again to split the difference on the issue and end up prey to the 'flip flopper' charge. So sentimentality out the window and one vote for Obama. But somehow, if she pulls off an upset tonight and wins NJ and other states, I'll actually end up feeling releived. My head says Obama and my heart Hillary, but unlike my feelings concerning Israel, where I give primacy to my heart over my head, on this one I went with what Russians call 'kapilka', i.e. brain cells.

1 Comments:

At 8:30 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

OK, time for the usual erudite dignified thoughtful well-informed piece. On the Governor. Soon to be ex. Governor, I mean. Well, maybe ex-spouse as well. And ex-con, eventually. How about it, Walter?

Locke

 

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