As an independent who is somewhere well left of the Democratic Party, I am deeply moved by Obama's election. That Americans embraced this candidate at this time engenders hope that there may be a way out of the house of horrors of eight years of Cheney and his puppet Bush.

From where I stand, however, virtually all American politicians on the national stage look like Republicans. That the Republican party now resembles the National Socialists is simply a reflection of their being forced out of their traditional niche by the right of center Democratic establishment.

That said, I would have gladly and humbly voted for either the first black or first woman president. I would have voted for any of the Democratic candidates from the primaries, even John Edwards with his feet of clay.

Rather, I have spent the last several decades voting against whatever horrific candidate the real Republican party fields. What Joan Walsh and other pundicrats always get wrong is the interpretation of motivations. I vote center because that is all I am offered in viable candidates.

In the unlikely event that the two "major" parties (meaning the two who conspire to hold onto power) permit substantive election reform such as instant run-off elections, I and many like me will immediately begin to vote FOR the Naders and Kuciniches and lamented Wellstones of the political landscape, with the Democratic nominee serving as a backstop candidate.

In the mean time, every vote is a vote AGAINST some Orwellian nightmare.

Obama looks like a reasonable guy with somewhat right wing tendencies. In this election his transformative possibilities lie with the novel notion of having a reasonable guy in the Whitehouse, and of course with his multiracial background. His so-called "centrist" philosophy is unlikely to aid him in becoming the change we all wish to see in the world. Whatever liberal/progressive goals he may personally harbor, he will inevitably squelch these time and again with the limp hope of recruiting Republican support. Rather, let the Republicans fillibuster if they have the cojones. Call their bluff.

Far from bipartisan rule, our government remains under the control of one wing of a single national political party. Thankfully for a few years it will be the less extreme wing, but not forever, not forever.