Barack Obama

became Obamacare.

I've always wondered about the vehemence of ODS among some HRC supporters. She does not have a problem with PBO and I don't believe he has one with her.

Some have never gotten over her loss to him. I did not find her ideas to be original. She may be great behind the scenes with all the nuances. She came off as very hawkish in the debates, with only Gravel and Kucinich for immediate withdrawal from Iraq, etc.

Edwards, et al, didn't vary from the hawkish line, either. HRC and the hawkish crowd were touted by media as the 'serious' contenders. It turned me off. Nothing to me is more serious than promoting peace, social justice and saving the biosphere.

Obama, on the other hand, in that debate saw both sides. While the anti-war candidates were not treated with respect by the 'serious' ones, Obama showed the anti-war side the respect they deserved and went about discussing their differences.

That was what got my attention, a person who was clearly thoughtful, willing to treat others as equals naturally and not protecting ego or for ambition.

That was a big issue with me after listening to fulminating repukes for years with their hubris of calling the dead by that hateful term, 'collateral damage.' No attempt to paint Obama with that broad brush will work. All efforts to make him into a hawk or a Bush are irrational failures.

He won the Nobel Prize because he had a vision to quit warmaking and he's implemented it. I've said before though, that the absence of war is not always peace. We will see lesser than war level conflicts with hideous acts and brutality keep on happening until they are resolved.

There is no freedom gained by war, just a status quo, either the old one survives, or a new one takes its place. PBO has urged maintenance of a civil, secular society to create peace. Despite the horrors we are seeing in the media, in other places the world is peaceful, green and thriving. And those who live in those places are blessed.

HRC may be turn out to be an excellent POTUS, but she simply does not resonate with me. I will admit my bias without attacking her. On social issues, she is strong. We cannot stand aside and let the Koch conquest be completed.