frustrated florida voters.

so for the first time in a presidential election, i'm really excited about voting. before barack obama had decided to run for president, he was the keynote speaker at sojourners call to renewal conference on june 28, 2006. i can't remember who first directed me to his address, but after listening to it for the first time i was so inspired that i decided i wanted this man to be president. if you've never heard this speech, and you're at all interested in or intrigued by barack obama, or simply concerned with the intersection of faith and politics, i would recommend you give this a listen.

before recently, i'd never been registered along party lines, but when senator obama decided to run for office last year, i registered as a democrat so that i could vote for him in florida's primary. tragically, florida's democratic party has muddled all floridians' input by changing our primary date to january 29th. i suppose florida didn't want to be lumped in with massachusetts, connecticut, california, and 17 other states on 'super tuesday,' which falls this year on february 5th. because the primaries are overseen by political parties and not by the government, each party makes their own rules as to how they want the voting process to work. aside from those states which were already set to vote before february 5th, no state was (and is) permitted to move their primary to before this date. florida did, and we're paying for it. the DNC penalized florida by taking away all of our delegates, which means that it probably won't matter whether or not i vote on tuesday.

now, as i was thinking about this today, this situation presents a unique opportunity in this years primary. the democratic candidates have made a pact not to campaign here, which means no commercials, phone calls, or letters in the mail. so despite having no delegates, those who vote in florida won't have the hate-campaigns or redundant debates to pull from. and even though i could easily justify not voting, i think i will, just to see what would have happened. and just to see what a pure-ish vote-casting in florida will look like. people may just vote their consciences. and who knows? maybe the DNC will have mercy and give us our delegates in the end.

florida republicans changed their date as well, but were only penalized half their delegates. so giuliani and company are down here on the campaign trail. mitt romney was here a couple days ago, and casey and i saw john mccain's 'straight talk express' bus drive past us at a stoplight a few nights back. i hate how the process is all about momentum and waiting for candidates to slip up. i read a guy earlier today who was suggesting that states should have primaries whenever they like, but that no results should be published until all votes were cast. i think it's a great idea, but unfortunately, probably not very realistic.

on a lighter note, arianna huffington with a fresh take on polls: huffpollstrology is the huffington post's answer to america's addiction with election polls. they won't stop reporting polls, but will begin treating them as "lightweight diversions on par with horoscopes and political betting lines."

as it turns out, both ron paul and barack obama are leos. what fun.