My governor is Christine Gregoire. In the primary, her principal opponent was King County Executive Ron Sim, a black man. I had voted for both of them (Gregoire was then the state attorney general) many times. I supported her in the primary because I believed she was the better candidate. She has been, on the whole, a good governor and I support her reelection.

I don't support Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination. It is not that I hate Hillary Clinton, but because I don't think she'd make a better President than Barack Obama. I also don't think she'd have made a better President than John Edwards, whom I supported before he dropped out, or Chris Dodd, whom I supported before he dropped out. Chris Dodd ran a godawful campaign. John Edwards, frankly, could easily have complained of a reverse form of sexism and racism, but instead recognized reality and acted with honor in dropping out when he did.

There are some posts here that seem to assume that there was a presumption in favor of Hillary Clinton's candidacy that had to be overcome for anyone, lest they be accused of sexism, supporting another candidate. I can't overstate how contemptible that position is. Each candidate had the opportunity to persuade Democrats to support them. Hillary Clinton has lacked neither the resources, nor the credentialed advisers, nor the support in the party machinery, and certainly not the visibility on the national scene to make her case in the manner in which she chose.

Yes, she has been dogged by criticism, some of it unfair and some of it baring connotations of sexism. For some reason, there are people who would never use any but the most coded means of racism to oppose Obama who don't hesitate to use silly sexist comments about Hillary. Frankly, though, the agist comments against John McCain are also crossing the obnoxiousness barrier. Politics is indeed a dirty business.

In the end, my choice of Obama was based most on his ability to make a clean case against John McCain on the issue of the Iraq War. Hillary can't make that case, much as John Kerry was sullied by his inconsistent record on the war in 2004. Obama's arguments against the war even when he was running for the Senate indicated a far more realistic view of America's place in the world than any American politician with a shot at the Presidency has had the guts to state out loud.

The Clinton supporters' constant comments about his alleged lack of experience ring hollow in my ears. First, they are merely helping John McCain make a case against either of them in the general election. Second, they could easily have been used to describe the experience of a governor of Arkansas of approximately the same age in 1992. In 1992, I supported Bill Clinton after hearing his speech at the Economic Club of Detroit because it was the speech of a smart person who seemed to understand America. I support Barack Obama this year for much the same reason. Among the most "experienced" people ever elected President were James Buchanan, Herbert Hoover, Richard Nixon and George H.W. Bush. Among the least were Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson and John F. Kennedy (yeah, you could throw W. in there, too, but he wasn't actually elected, was he?). I think it's fair to say that experience does not connote likelihood of success in office.

And while it's statistically difficult to pin down right now, the fact is that while blacks have consistently voted in far smaller percentages than they were eligible to, it's far more likely that they would increase their percentage vote relative to the rest of the population more if Obama were the nominee.

It's far harder to see any particular population voting more because of Hillary; older, white women, her strongest demographic, have historically voted in a higher proportion than they make up of the population.

to learn that the GOP is more concerned with politics than our national security.

"Your chips, sir."

"Why thank you."

Where a particular litany of issues relating to Obama is mandatory in every single article: bowling, Rev. Wright, Pledge of Allegiance, etc.? I'm sorry, Walter, but you missed "Hussein", didn't you?

I don't see the Keating Five allegations mentioned everytime there's an article about McCain. I won't even start with Hillary.