Obama and Hope

The more I think about the Iowa caucus, the more encouraged I am. That's important for a Texas Democrat. The concept of hope took seed during the last elections. Lots of people don't know it, but two of the seats picked up by the Dems were in Texas. But I watched the national political developements with dismay - would the Democratic Party really choose Hillary Clinton to be our candidate? I like Edwards the best, but Obama is a close second. Now it's beginning to look like Democrats nationwide are thinking the same thing. Time for Democrats to be liberals. Yeah, haul out the "L" word! Make it a party thing - the whole mess in Iraq, the mortgage crisis, inflation and expensive oil, these are all problems created by or exacerbated by Bush with the support of Republican congressmen. We should be able to win with some sort of "don't reward failure" campaign, or, with a more positive spin, "All we are saying, Is give Dems a chance." Then we have to do something unprecedented in recent politics - demonstrate competence. Bring down the national debt, repair our reputation abroad, use our tax dollars responsibly, GET US OUT OF IRAQ, mend the polarization here, reduce the size of our bloated government, help us pay for college and health care. Make this a better country for everyone to live in, instead of pandering to the wealthy and powerful. We won't have to achieve all these goals at once, but we should make progress on all of them. Because the first party to take the White House and Congress, then demonstrate basic competence, will control the country for decades.