Election 2008 - NH

Suppose I could lend opinion 2 billion and 14 on the subject, but it will hardly stand out. I don't really know what to say about it overall except the one obvious point: no one knows where this is going. We can follow the polls, make our predictions, go with our gut feelings, etc., but this is far too big for any one pundit or group to really define or understand. Even the most able pollsters have to be almost completely baffled right now--which suits me fine. The less relevant the polls, the better, IMHO.

What cannot be denied, however, is that there is definitely a change in the zeitgeist here in the US. Political parties are being redrawn right now. A generation is losing power while the younger generations are still trying to define themselves, politically. The candidates winning over America are the anti-candidates: a young, ethnically mixed man raised by a single mother, an affable Baptist preacher that started out polling below the margin of error, and an old, maverick war hero that is sometimes more unpopular in his own party than in the opposition's.

I see Hillarah's win in NH as an aberration--I really do. I don't dismiss the chance that she could win the D nomination, but it will be the last gasp of a generation if she does. Both parties are being rebuilt now, as we speak. The Ds have been trying to repair themselves for decades now, so I suspect they will get there quicker than the GOP, but I don't know that and neither does anyone right now.

And actually, another thing that I don't think can be denied: this is, by far, the most exciting election in my adult life (now 37). I suspect that it may well be the most interesting election since at least 1968. It seems that, for the first time in decades, the majority of voters are choosing a candidate they can really be for vs. a candidate that is the lessor of two evils. And for a political junkie like me, it will be something to remember for a looooooooong time.