This is a historic day for the citizens of Utah, the first time we’ve ever participated in the Super Tuesday process, following unprecedented visits by nearly every major presidential candidate from both parties. (Little old Utah normally doesn’t get this much attention from the candidates, partly — I would imagine — because the state’s population is so small, and probably also because it’s a given that, come November, our electoral votes will go to whoever the GOP nominates.)
I myself voted in the Democratic primary this morning. (I couldn’t have voted on the Republican side even if I’d been so inclined — which I’m not — because they have a closed primary, loyal members of the club only, please.) For the record (and at risk of kicking off an argument here on my humble little corner of the Internet), I voted for Barack Obama.

I’ll be honest, I’m not wildly enthusiastic about him. My preferred candidate was John Edwards, a good, old-fashioned populist and anti-corporate crusader who just couldn’t seem to attract any attention. But with Edwards out of the picture and a choice to be made between Obama and Hillary Clinton, Barack strikes me as the more strategic option. I don’t see a great deal of difference between Clinton and Obama on the policy side of things (not counting the much-ballyhooed Iraq vote), and I simply don’t buy the experience argument (i.e., Hillary’s got it because she spent eight years in the White House already, and Obama’s just a snot-nosed kid because he’s only a first-term senator — meh, whatever; I don’t think hours logged has as much to do with good leadership as other factors), so my decision largely comes down to which of them I think has the best chance of winning in the general election and what might happen following such a win. And in that regard, Barack is the better bet.

I have no particular animosity toward Hillary Clinton myself, but I just can’t escape the nagging thought that if she gets the nomination, it’ll re-energize the slavering hordes of the far-right-wing and dredge up all the stale old bullshit of the Wild Bill Years. Her fans simply don’t get how deeply, viscerally disliked she is by a large number of average Americans out here in flyover country, and that hatred will translate into action. I don’t think it’s impossible she could win the presidency, but if she did win, I think it’d be only by a whisker and that her administration would very quickly find itself bogged down in the same pointless “politics of personal destruction” that hamstrung her husband’s administration. I was tired of all that nasty obstructionism and witch-hunting ten years ago, and I’m twice as tired of it now.

Look, our country is in deep, deep trouble. We’re exhausted after 40 years of culture wars, 20 years of hardcore partisan warfare, and five years of literal warfare. It’s no secret that I think the G.W. Bush administration has been a disaster for this nation, and our next president needs to be someone who can examine the problems we face with a clear eye, untainted by old grudges and personal baggage. And I’m sorry, but that ain’t Hillary. I don’t know for sure that it’s Barack, but I know it’s not anyone whose name is Clinton.

Also (and this is a big one), I don’t like the idea of the same two families running this country for 20-plus years. George Washington voluntarily stepped down after two terms because he was leery of establishing anything resembling a dynasty in this country, and I remember very clearly how refreshing Bill Clinton’s inauguration was following 12 years of Reagan-G.H.W. Bush. We need to throw open the windows every once in a while and bring in some fresh air, and, brother, do we need a hit of oxygen right now.

In short, I’m ready to move on from where we’ve been. And I’m cautiously hopeful that if Obama does win the presidency — and I think he’s got a good chance of doing it — we just may start to. I’m not naive enough to think that we can undo the partisan apocalypse of the last few decades without some pain. But I think electing someone who is not of the Sixties generation, who is not heavily invested in the culture war that began in 1968, and who hasn’t been in Washington long enough to become the Establishment they supposedly despise, may be a good first step.

Besides, he’s the only one of the candidates still running from either party who has had the strength of character and the moral clarity to say flat-out that Torture. Is. Wrong. That’s huge for me. Because I think one of the big goals ahead of us, if we’re going to save this country, is to restore our moral standing in the eyes of the world. And you can’t do that if you’re trying to figure out a way to justify waterboarding. Or even if you just can’t being yourself to denounce it.