Where have I been?

Did ya miss me?

Oh.

How was your Super Tuesday? Mine wasn't too good. I'm thinking this Democrat deal is going to go to Hillary, and while I thought that might be a good idea - a year ago - now, I'm not so sure. Mostly because John McCain appears to be the Repugnican candidate, and that makes Hillary the anti-Christ to Democrats. We don't need a reason for Democrats to vote for McCain, and Hillary gives them that reason. I'm fearful that America is gullible enough to believe that McCain is a moderate, when actually, he is a clown.

I'm seeing a lot of signs and slogans that are getting behind the "Woman in Charge" idea, which I find appealing, I'm just not sure that this woman is the one I want in charge.

There it is, the American flag and the waving, happy politician, telling us that she's going to do the right thing. Change. It's all about change. I don't know about you, but I've been through a couple dozen of these Presidential campaigns, and every one of them promises something or other to us, depending on the times. It's either economic prosperity, getting government off our backs, ending a war, stopping the [insert] crisis or finding a way to make ourselves better. Whatever it is, it generally doesn't happen. When is the last time you thought government was less intrusive in your life? Ronald Reagan ran on that slogan at least once, and I don't see it happening, and that was 20 years ago.

Various candidates have pledged to stop a war, but once they get into the office they find that the war was a pretty big deal, and like a lot of big deals, they're hard to stop.

Economic prosperity is subjective. If you have a good job and you're getting nice pay increases every year, you're prosperous. If you're in jail or unemployed, the prosperity has pretty much come to a halt. You can't blame or credit the president for either one, but they take credit or blame for both. Life is funny that way.

Oil is a big deal. It's bigger than war. I don't hear a lot of "energy independence" stuff coming from either of the Democrats. Meanwhile, I'm still seeing huge vehicles carting around one person and gasoline prices are headed for three dollars in these parts. I liked John Kerry's idea about an "Apollo Project", where he would shove money at a bunch of smart people and they would come up with another propulsion mechanism, just like we came up with a way to get us to the moon. It isn't all that difficult, really. It's mostly a matter of getting the people to buy into the idea. Hybrid cars work. Make them affordable and we'll buy them. Make hydrogen available and we'll use it.

It's a popular idea to tell people that you're going to end the war in Iraq. Every time Obama says it, he has to stop for the applause. People applaud because it's a good idea - on its face. In the grim reality, it might not be the best thing. The war is bigger than any of us realize. As big as you think it is, multiply that by a really big number and write the result on a piece of paper. You'll need another piece of paper. Take the "end the war" stuff with a thousand grains of salt, then don't pay attention to it, because it literally takes an act of Congress to get us out of there, and they can't even make a decision to give us $600, so how long do you think it will take for them to get us out of Iraq?

In the end, you have to vote your conscience. That's a hard thing to do, since our conscience often conflicts with our emotions. That's what politicans count on. The emotion/conscience conflict. They build careers on it.

Let your conscience be your guide.