Finally, the Primaries Come to Oregon!

Here's Mike with his very first U.S. ballot and voting pamphlet, before dropping it in the mail! Very exciting!!!

We vote entirely by mail in Oregon, and we mailed our ballots in last week. This evening an Obama canvasser came to the door to remind us to vote. I told him we'd already voted, and he apologized and said their rolls were not completely up to date.

As he was jotting down a note on his clipboard, Kieran came to the door and announced: "My dad voted for the woman!" I felt compelled to tell him that we were definitely planning to support Obama in the general election (since it's 99% sure he'll get the candidacy). He was very polite and said that he would be out there campaigning in the fall for Hillary if by some chance she won the candidacy. I thought it was very respectful of him to say that (especially since we all know it's not going to be Hillary!), and I couldn't help but wish that all of us Democrats were behaving more along those lines, having polite and respectful conversations with each other!

In some ways, making my decision between the first serious female candidate or the first serious African-American candidate ("serious" meaning ones that had a real chance) has become easier in recent weeks. I know Obama is going to win Oregon by a landslide, so it made my decision much easier. (Obama had at least 72,000 people cheer him on yesterday in downtown Portland, and probably hordes more couldn't get near the event.) In the end, my vote doesn't really matter so maybe I got what I wished for. I believe we are blessed to have two such outstanding candidates. I just really hope with my fingers tightly crossed that we can turn the tide on that "no presidential candidate has ever succeeded without winning West Virginia" thing...