[It's quite a ramble, folks. Sorry. I'm not gonna go back and edit or polish.]

Like others out there in my sphere of friendship and influence, I have been avoiding thoughts about the upcoming presidential elections. Many moons ago, this was because I am annoyed at how we run our elections these days, and did not understand how it helps our country to have a two-year-plus election campaign cycle. Ridiculous. This thinking thinking thinking for years years years is a potentially distructive pattern of behavior that I am working hard to change for myself, so I wanted no part in our national thinking but not doing repeate cycle. Twasn't helping us, all that unproductive thinking and spinning the same crud around over and over again.

Then I fell into the new reason for avoidance. For me, this one was not about the fact that I don't have any power over the outcome at this point, so why worry. No, it was about fear and pessimism. Fear that we won't select a good liberal/left/Dem whatever you'd like to call it candidate. And fear that even if we do, the many categories of swing voters would still select the right/conservative/Rep/crazy demagogue candidate and I would have gotten my hopes up -- once again -- for nothing.

But yesterday or this morning or maybe while I was dreaming, I changed my mind. I am going to care about what's going on in this election, because I need to send positive energy out into the universe, an energy that is confident we can make a good, ethical, heart-based selection for a candidate who gives a crap about us American citizens as well as about the other citizens of the world. I'm not helping the universe right itself by avoiding or being fearful that we'll stay in this same harmful presidential pattern, and if anything I am harming the path to balance and positive harmony.

Yeah, yeah. I'm not into all that Oprah mumbo jumbo if you just want it enough you'll be a billionaire. But I do believe that our intentions have some influence in the ether, so I may as well make my intentions positive ones.

Having said all that, here's a link to a better more thoughtful version of the select-a-candidate that's going around:

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/projects/ongoing/select_a_candidate/

On this one, interestingly, Hillary came up my first choice.* And even though her views aren't closest to mine in the real world, I am not ashamed to say I love Hillary. I really don't know why people dislike her so much, and by that I mean the people who dislike her without spelling out how they disagree with her positions -- that I can respect. I do not believe that Hillary has gone all middle-of-the-road like so many other far left-wingers do. Her responses were similar to Barak's and John's on many of my key issues. And I am realistic in knowing that most people's views on policies don't match mine, so my ideal candidate will never win. Looking beyond that, I consider the viable possibilities, and I like Hillary** quite a bit.

In an ideal world, here's the order of people I would vote for:

Dennis K.
Hillary C.
Barak O.
John E.

The best news I took from participating in this quiz and then really reading the answers is that I would be happy with any of the top Dem candidates as my president. Secretly, there's even one or two Rep candidates whose policies are not so awful that I would croak immediately upon their elections. With the moderate Reps, it's their hearts that I question.

But, positivity! We *can* elect a good person with reasonable policies who can shift us out of this malevolent doldrums that less caring leaders have pulled us into. And I will do my part by believing that, no, by *knowing* that for all of 2008.



* This was largely because on several policy questions, I liked two answers equally and really had to struggle to pick the one I liked best. I liked the answers of my other fave candidates just as much in most cases. Or, in one or two cases, I didn't like anyone's answer very much and tried to choose the answer that would get closest to my choice and would cause the least amount of governmental mess. Frankly, her policies are simpler and more straightforward, and more likely to avoid nit-picky government programs that, as a government employee, I know are as likely to cause problems as they are to be based in good intentions.

** I do think the whole Bush/Clinton dynasty thing could be harmful to her chances, though. And, while it doesn't effect my choice, I can see how that dynasty fatigue could effect the choices of others.

In my Rick love, that is. His restaurant is the best, according to the 2007 James Beard awards (Outstanding Restaurant award). And I ate there! And it isn't the priciest restaurant on the planet!

And yeah, it was gooooood. Aren't you jealous?