I am a born and bred Democrat from San Francisco. I am Italian/English, married to a Latino, and I used to sing in the Glide Church Choir. I have a daughter who is married to another woman, and I'm proud of it. I am pro-choice, pro-peace and pro-health care reform. That is to say, I am anti-bigot in every possible way.
I lived in a commune in the 70s, marched against the War in Vietnam, and crashed the glass ceiling to become a physician and administrator. I have protested the war in Iraq at every step of the way and I believe we need to leave now, not later, and consequences be damned.
I am a boomer and I support Barack Obama. In fact, I've had a bumper sticker for Obama on my car for more than a year.
I am gravely concerned that, if we follow the old line democrats and give the nomination to Hillary because it's her turn, we will lose the presidential race in November 2008.
California democrats will remember that Phil Angelides (anyone remember him at all????) won the primaries over Steve Westley. Angelides only appealed to party Dems, and there was virtually no interest in his candidacy outside the party faithful. My local party guys wouldn't even allow me to put up a Westley sign at a booth where we were registering voters. It was Angelide's turn, and party dems would not let anyone else in on the deal. And Angelides was crushed by the moron Governator.
I believe that Westley would have appealed to some Independents and Republicans and we would have had a chance to win. But with Angelides, the race was over before it began.
Hillary is hated by so many Republicans that there is no chance that they will vote for her, even if the Repubs put up Giuliani or one of the other "objectionable" candidates. There will be no crossover if Hillary is the candidate.
Obama, on the other hand, has a freshness and stature that Hillary does not have. Because of my bumper sticker, I have had lots of conversations about why I support Obama and why he has appealed to me since his keynote at the 2004 convention.
I have already heard from many moderate Republicans that they would consider voting for Obama, but not Hillary or Edwards. And I love Edwards, but he "lost" last time, and we will get hammered ceaselessly for that if he is on the ticket.
Obama represents real hope to Progressive Democrats like me. Hillary represents party politics at its worst.