Presidential politics

Wow, isn't the presidential campaign fantastic??!! Such fascinating and weird characters running, and we really have no idea who will win each nomination.

I'm usually totally obsessed with these campaigns and read everything I can find in three or four newspapers, but this year I'm watching it through the filter of distance and a 12-hour time difference.

Anyway, my mom and I have been talking a lot about Hillary's and Obama's prospects. We both want to like Hillary, but we both find ourselves drawn toward Obama. And my sister, Rebekah, and her husband Dave, who live in Iowa City and get telephone calls from pollsters about three times a week, are volunteering for Obama.

In 1988, as my mom reminds me, I told her that the country wasn't ready for a President Dukakis. Too strange sounding. So what about Obama in 2008?

Twenty years later, I think that Obama is the Tiger Woods of politics: he's multi-racial and, really, post-racial. He plays at the highest level of a white man's game without selling out his values. He connects with liberals and moderates - from Ivy League grads to loyal Oprah viewers (are they one and the same? not too likely), without aligning himself with Al Sharpton's view of the world. Americans - at least those who came of age with MTV's invention - are used to a multi-culti world where non-whites win Oscars, the Masters and Wimbledon. It's the world of Tiger, Halle Berry, J-Lo, the Williams sisters.

So, yes, I think Obama can win. Hillary could probably win, and it would be thrilling to have a woman president, but she comes with so much Clintonian baggage. Does anyone doubt that Bill would get into trouble as the "First Lad?" Or that Hillary would be a target of Fox News starting 1 second after her Nov 2008 victory speech? Is that what the US needs right now? I don't see how she can overcome that.