Today is Election Day in Virginia, where all seats in the state legislature are up for grabs. While I might ordinarily sit out an off-year election cycle, this year there is a strong chance that the razor-thin GOP majority in that body will be booted out of office. Virginia has been trending strongly blue in recent years because of the increase in Northern Virginia’s influence–we have elected two popular Democratic governors and threw the vile George Allen out of his US Senate office. People are sick and tired of the horse-and-buggy Republicans in Richmond continually getting in the way of social and economic progress. People are also very upset over the outrageous “remedial” traffic fees passed by the legislature (which can be up to the thousands of dollars), and are holding the GOP majority accountable. I sense a scalping!

I always feel kind of weepy on Election Day, even on one as relatively minor as this one. I am always reminded that this is still America, however much it may have been diminished under the thumb of a rogue regime for the last seven years–the land of the free and the brave. So many people have put their lives on the line and died so that I can push that little button at the voting booth. The images of outrage coming out of Pakistan in the wake of the Musharraf dictator’s suspension of the constitution there only serve to remind me of just how precious and fragile the right to vote is, and why I so strongly feel that every single person of every political persuasion has a moral obligation to go to the polling booths on Election Day.

Today is also one year (minus two days) away from Election Day 2008, the next chance we have of permanently repudiating the darkness of the Bush years and rejoining the community of nations. I still fume over Election Day 2000 and what might have been, and again over Election Day 2004 where we could have booted the bastard out of office. But no, it took six years of war, invasions, torture of prisoners, a collapsing dollar, a looming energy crisis, a city destroyed by the forces of global warming beginning to take hold, a burst housing bubble thanks to a negligent Fed, and more for people to finally come to their damned senses and boot the scandalized GOP out of Congress. The White House is next.

After giving a lot of thought to it, I am throwing my support behind Hillary Clinton’s campaign for President. Here are a couple of reasons why:

–She gets the climate crisis, the energy crisis, and the economic interplay between the two. They feature prominently on her campaign page. These two are the most important issues of our time, bar none except possibly nuclear proliferation. Iraq is up near there in importance, but only because of the nexus between our involvement there and our addiction to foreign oil. The predictions of climate calamity are becoming increasingly dire, and we have wasted seven years of doing nothing. As of this writing, Atlanta is a few short weeks away from running out of water, providing a second harsh reminder of how climate change could bring our civilization to its knees. Right along with that is our addiction to fossil fuels that we absolutely must break as we enter a period of increasing scarcity (oil approaches $100 a barrel even now). Making our society more energy efficient and moving to alternative sources of energy could create millions of jobs and take the country out of its economic hell-hole. Out of all the candidates, I believe she presents the best hope of implementing meaningful climate change and instituting something akin to a “Manhattan Project” to wean America off its fossil fuel addiction.

–Bill Clinton. There can be no question that, as opposed to the current Monkey-In-Chief, Bill left the country a far better place than when he arrived at the White House (despite his personal scandals). He has thrown his heart into the Climate Change Initiative, doing things like working with cities and Wal-mart to make urban locations much more energy efficient more cheaply. He will be one heart-beat away from the Oval Office, providing valuable advice to Hillary on areas in which she may be lacking a bit such as in foreign policy.

Three years ago I didn’t think she was electable. Now I think she is, or at least is the strongest and most electable of the Dem candidates. I have never really fallen for Obama’s spell. He struck me as inexperienced, and while his words are eloquent they seem tailored so that each side of an issue thinks he’s on their side. The recent brouhaha with the anti-gay preacher kind of sealed his fate with me. As for Edwards, maybe he deserves a chance. But he comes across as rather fake to me, talking about Two Americas of rich and poor at the same time he gets $400 haircuts and made millions in attorney litigation fees. If either of these two win the nomination I will support them, but for now I believe Hillary has the best shot.

Starting today I’ll dedicate a lot of my centerblue.org blog to trying to deliver Virginia for Hillary one year from now. It’s an exciting time to be a Virginia resident, a place where you can really make a difference.

Happy Election Day! (and you better vote if you live in Virginia!)

Tags: election-2007, election-2008, hillary, virginia