"i think americans are ready for substance."

"i think they want to get beyond a president who...never had a sense of complexity..."

to be honest, i don't know if i will vote for hillary clinton for president. i also don't know that i won't.


my dad won't. rob's mom more than likely won't.

what's amazing to me is the 24-hour news cycle in the u.s. and how people are talking about the tip the clinton campaign did or did not leave at the maid-rite diner near boone, iowa. not about a war, or about the cost of prescription drugs, or health care, or torture. a tip. to a waitress. in fact, andrew sullivan says that tip (or lack thereof) is "telling".

i can tell you that from tokyo, or from our apartment in new york, i don't feel the "thrill" of barack obama. i want to. but at this point i like the idea of barack obama better than i like the candidate.

i remember seeing hillary clinton on "meet the press" a few years back. around the time when she was running for senate. i called rob after watching it, and said "if this woman runs for president, i will vote for her." she was everything i wanted a leader to be. she answered questions with a yes or a no, and then went on to explain her answer. she was refreshing and warm and funny and, i thought, honest. i'm not sure i see that openness from her anymore.

eight years ago, the country thought george w. bush was someone they wanted to sit down and have a beer with, and that was a reason to put him in the white house. (many americans may get that chance soon, since bush's aspirations after he leaves office are anything but lofty.)

hopefully, we're past that silly idea. i'd like to think that we want a president who is intelligent, and prepared. i'm not sure that someone who knows "the game" is a bad idea, either. and honestly, i think i might like to have dinner with the woman pictured above.

and i just might want this woman sitting across the table from someone like mahmoud ahmadinejad.

UPDATE / 11.15.07 --
from rob's mom:
correct, i will not be voting for hillary. quite frankly, I am not impressed with anyone running in either party. I want us to get back to the archane idea of the "citizen farmer" who takes his /her turn and then goes home. I see service to country as a responsibility of citizenship, not a career.