Visit my newest blog.

I haven't been blogging here much, but I thought I'd tell those of you who may have clicked through here how to reach me -- via Inklit.com.

Why The Democrats Should Nominate Barack Obama

Most people don't vote.

You can complain about that or lament it or what have you, but the truth is, the US suffers from abysmal voter turnout year after year.

Whatever the reasons behind that fact, it's something to be aware of when you nominate a candidate.   Whatever else you want in a nominee, on a practical level, you want someone who's going to do well given the fact that most people don't vote.  Since most people don't vote, the election will be decided in large measure by how many otherwise-non-voters you can get to turn out on your side, versus the opposing side.  In other words, you want to do all you can to energize your own voter base, while ensuring that your opponent's voter base stays home and watches television.

The Democratic base is opposed to the war in Iraq.  Enough Democrats and others were opposed to the war in 2006 to send a majority to both the House and the Senate, a clear mandate for an opposition party which the underachieving Dems promptly squandered.  Are the Democrats going to be more energized by a woman who has been a poster child for going along and getting along with the Republicans on Iraq?  No, I believe the answer is that they're going to get out of their homes and vote for the candidate who was consistently correct on this important issue, Barack Obama.

Now let's look at the Republican base.  The Democratic candidate that the Republican base loves to hate (perhaps more than any other living Democrat besides her husband) is Hillary Clinton.  Hillary Clinton is the Democratic candidate who is most likely to get a Republican to get up off their chair and vote, because for all the talk about conservative Republicans being lukewarm on John McCain, there's no ambivalence at all when it comes to Clinton.  They may not get out to vote for McCain, but you can bet your bottom dollar they'll get out to vote against Clinton.

From a Democratic perspective, the millions of conservative voters who might nap through election Tuesday in November being Lukewarm for McCain are a giant we should gratefully tip-toe past.

So you can say we should nominate Obama because he's right on the issues.  Or you can say we should nominate him because he's not as likely to wake the giant up.  Either way, he's the right choice.

Whatever John Lockwood Feels Like

I've been thinking about launching a personal blog for some time.

Actually I have a couple of them -- this one and one on Wordpress.com, since I'm curious as to which one will do better as far as getting promoted in blog search etc.

The idea of having a personal blog is of course to write about whatever I feel like, within the limits of impropriety, of course.

Propriety.

Damn.