Obama Wins in Iowa

Now admittedly, I try to not pay attention to polls as little as possible, and let's face it; Iowa is really all in all, just a big poll. However, I believe that an Obama win of any type is very encouraging for the future of this country. While not being an optimal candidate (no one is), he is the best mainstream candidate by far. He is not connected to the political/corporate quagmire of muck and sleeze that exists in Washington today as some other candidates are (Clinton and Guiliani come to mind), and he has a positive message of change and taking steps toward repairing (some of) the things that are wrong with this country.

Ah, the life of an independent is quite confusing indeed. A fiscal conservative and social liberal (if we must put labels on such things) sits with several *decent* candidates that will lead us in a positive social direction, but virtually none that will lead us in a fiscally positive direction; The only one of note being Ron Paul.

Thus, we (and I mean, I) have no choice but to thrust my weight behind a candidate that satisfies one but not the other. Let me put it this way; If I had a choice of the top 3 *ELECTABLE* candidates to support they would be the following, in the following order...

1) Barak Obama
2) John Edwards
3) Hilary Clinton

I put Clinton on here, only because there are no other good *ELECTABLE* candidates, and I believe a lot of the shit that she is saying that i disagree with is a facade to appear tough to counter-act the fact that she is a girl.... she doesn't want to appear soft. As unappealing as the thought of having over 2 decades of Clintons and Bushs in office is, I am trying to polish this turd in hopes that it won't work out as bad as I am thinking it might.

So... does the fact that my top 3 cross-party candidates are all democrats make me a democrat?... no.

The fact is, that I cannot in good conscience put my desire for less taxes and more money in my paycheck ahead of the principles that this country are founded on; namely, due process and not torturing our war detainees (just to name a couple). Unfortunately all of the Republican candidates except for one and a half have ruled themselves out in this regard because all but Ron Paul and McCain (with a wishy-washy answer) believe that our AMERICAN policy should be torturing people if it helps to stop a terror situation. Disgraceful, Un-American and Treasonous in my mind.

So, in NO particular order, forgetting electability here are my top 3 candidates...

1) Dennis Kucinich
2) Ron Paul
3) Barak Obama

Since Obama made both lists, I guess that makes it a no-brainer.