avocado8

I Voted

I did it. I voted.

I was torn right up until the last minute, even after long IM conversations with my friends Jay and Kristin in California (in separate windows :-) last night, even after longer conversations with Al over the past few weeks, even after watching Senator Clinton on Keith Olbermann and Larry King last night and the Democratic debate a week ago. Yes, even after the barrage of phone calls from the Obama campaign and its supporters, and even after the Beaner repeatedly urged us to vote Obama.

By the time I walked out the door this morning, however, I'd made up my mind which buttons I was going to push (and now that I write that sentence, I realize that I mean it figuratively as well as literally). One last go-round with Al did the trick; I finally knew what I was going to do.

None of the choices on the ballot were easy (well, except for the races in which only one candidate was running); in the State Senate race, for example, I had a choice between a candidate whose literature was less than coherent (hello, editorial?), one who said he'd refuse to give up his role as union boss if elected, and one who might very well be the puppet of the former State Senator who's now in jail. Certainly, bad writing is the least of all these evils, but for me, it's hard to forgive. Forgive I did, though, mainly on the strength of my neighbor's endorsement. (I love my neighbor Jane and her husband Tully, who work tirelessly for the candidates and issues they believe in.)

Meanwhile, did you know that here in Pennsylvania we get to choose not only the presidential candidate, but also the delegates to the convention? Is that the case in other states? I don't remember ever doing it before, but today I had to choose 9 delegates—specifically 5 women and 4 men—to the Democratic convention. This was quite a privilege, as it allowed me to voice my indecision on the ballot rather than making a clear choice: I voted for Candidate A for president, and then chose 7 delegates for Candidate B and 2 for Candidate A. (I might have chosen all for Candidate B except for the fact that I like and respect two of Candidate A's delegates, and I wanted them to have a chance to go to the convention.)

So I've cast my ballot in the Pennsylvania primary. Crazily, perhaps, but I did it. I'll probably keep agonizing over which of the Democratic candidates I'd rather have as president for several more weeks, but whoever we get, I feel confident that I'll be able to vote for him or her in the general without serious regret.