Republicans for Obama--AND Clinton?

By Si Dunn

If Hillary Clinton loses the crucial and tightly contested primary races in Texas and Ohio March 4, one important key to her defeat will be the sudden surge of Republicans crossing party lines to vote for Barack Obama.

Despite Obama's strongly liberal track record, many disenchanted GOP voters have begun to view the Illinois Senator as someone who truly can bring much-needed fresh air to Washington and work constructively with political leaders on both sides of the aisle.

In Texas and Ohio, registered Republicans can choose to vote in their state's Democratic primary, rather than casting their ballot for the likely GOP contender, John McCain. And many will do just that--mostly for Obama. The irony here, of course, is that Republican leaders such as Karl Rove really wanted Hillary Clinton to be the nominee to go up against John McCain in the general election.

Indeed, many months ago, some key GOP leaders began urging Republicans to vote in open primaries for Hillary, so flyboy McCain could score an easy "mission accomplished" victory this November. They considered Senator Clinton both a very easy and strongly polarizing target.

What the Rove-ites and other Bush Administration nabobs didn't count on is that many everyday Republicans meanwhile have grown sick and tired of their own party's fiercely partisan politics and ultraconservative attitudes toward social and environmental issues. The U.S. economy now is swirling around and around in the toilet, and McCain's stated willingness to stay a hundred years or longer in Iraq has further dispirited many moderate, liberal and even conservative Republicans. The Democrats' strong message of change, whether voiced by Sen. Obama or Sen. Clinton, is resonating with them, too.

One other ironic note: some conservative Republicans recently have been urging their fellow conservatives in Texas and Ohio to vote for Hillary Clinton, because she is now seen as being politically more conservative than Barack Obama! These GOP conservatives fear a nationwide groundswell is growing stronger by the minute for Obama-style liberalism. At the same time, they also see their not-so-true-conservative John McCain's chances of getting elected now plunging out of the sky like a 500-pound bomb. Their one remaining hope to keep some faint semblance of conservatism in the White House is to help Hillary Clinton beat...Barack Obama.

Republicans for Obama--and Clinton. Truly, it's gonna be a long fall for the Grand Old Party!

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Clinton-Obama or Obama-Clinton?

By Si Dunn

After watching the Feb. 21, 2008, debate between Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Hussein Obama Jr., I have concluded that experience definitely should trump freshness in the sprint for the White House.

In my mind, the best and brightest ticket the Democrats could field would be Clinton for president and Obama for vice president. Senator Obama still needs a little more time to season and get a wider grasp of our increasingly complicated and interconnected planet. The vice presidency would be the perfect post for gaining that experience and understanding.

If the ticket turns out to be Obama-Clinton, however, it still will pave over anything the Republicans try to offer. McCain-Huckabee? McCain-Romney? McCain-McConnell? McCain-Hutchison? No combination will matter. Even many Republicans now are mad at the Republican Party for allowing so many wanton destructions of their goals and principles by the neoconservatives who have used the hapless George W. Bush as their ventriloquist's dummy. On Election Day, many disenchanted Republicans will cast protest votes for the Democratic challengers. Or they will just stay home and wearily turn their calenders to 2012.

Clinton-Obama or Obama-Clinton? Either combination is a formidable ticket that would sweep aside hundreds of years of prejudices and artificial limits and move us much closer to a government of the real people, by the real people, for the real people.

You want change? A Clinton-Obama or Obama-Clinton Administration would represent the most sweeping change this nation has seen in its complex political history. And it would bring two of our nation's best political minds to the forefront of leadership at a time when good leadership now is beyond desperately needed.

Of course, if you hate change and would rather stick with $100 oil and a hundred years in Iraq, then McCain's your man. McCain and whoever else would represent an equal share of more of the same.

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Thoughts on Turning 30...(34 Years Later)

By Si Dunn

Recently, while rummaging through some really old folders, I came across a manuscript I wrote in 1974: my "wise" thoughts on turning 30 that year.

The manuscript had been sent out to a few magazines, returned rejected, then stuffed away, perhaps for future reference.

Now, it has surfaced again, a little time capsule on three fading sheets of paper. I had typed it double-spaced on an ancient Underwood typewriter.

Without further ado, here are my thoughts on turning 30 during a time that coincided with the final months of the Nixon Administration:

STOPPING BY THIRTY
ON THE WAY TO FORTY

"At thirty, a man suspects himself a fool." -- Edward Young, The Complaint: Night Thoughts

So it goes for a Born-in-'44. Thirty now. Fat 40 in 1984. A gold watch on a Tuesday in the year 2009. All I have to do, of course, is live that long.

I prepared t00 much for turning 30. In 29's final weeks, I took notes. Did research into the future. Gathered wise sayings and unwise sayings: hooplas and elegies upon entering the fourth decade. Wrote verisimilitude.

Thirty, I decided 30 days too early, is the break-even age. When past is weighed against present and future. When victories and defeats, talents and liabilities are stacked on one side of the mind's scale, and possibilities are piled on the other.

Bullshit, I know now, going on 31. When one reaches 30, it's simply another day in the life of he who has made it that far. No zaps of wisdom from the sky; no earthquakes of depression.

Here is what happened on my 10,957th day counting leap years: Steve McQueen turned 44; and a lovely young lady a decade my junior stopped by with a chocolate cake and kissed my cheek.

I spent the rest of my milestone day alone, with crumbs on my face. I had told my friends that I didn't want a party, and being true friends, they did not give me one. I had meant, secretly, that nothing would have pleased me more than a brief, surprise fete.

I alternated--stretched out on my couch--between staring at the ceiling and reading books. One book seemed especially suited to the ambivalance of moods I was feeling: William Saroyan's Days of Life and Death and Escape to the Moon. In one essay, Saroyan recalled how he had felt on his 51st birthday: "...I was still the wild, swift, arrogant, confident, daring, impatient, laughing man I had always been--with certain reservations or exceptions, thus: I was still the glum, bitter, angry, outraged, stupid, slow, confused, and witless man I had always been."

Yes, I decided, stroking my semi-Saroyan moustache. That's exactly how I feel. I cut another piece of chocolate cake, then turned on the TV and watched Tony and Doug fail again to escape from "The Time Tunnel."

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