Clinton or Obama? Here's what our libs say

Either, neither and a lesson on yellow dogs
In our never-ending search to tap all the talents of the Alexandria JHS Boomers, we journeyed to the DFL mountain top seeking wisdom from our favorite pundits on the burning question, Clinton or Obama? The question seems to dominate media play these days, so how about some fresh local insight, we thought. Here's what we got:

Sue Engstrom
Clinton or Obama? Neither!! Because I can't make up my mind, and I'm still mourning Kucinich's chances!! I proudly wear my Kucinich t-shirt from four years ago to my gym classes!! In this Republican community, I doubt anyone at the gym even knows who he is! My grandson in St. Paul, tho, checks everyday for the Kucinich car parked two blocks from their home - it is completely (except windows) wall-papered with Kucinich bumper stickers from four years ago. YEA!!!

McCain is so scarey, I guess I'll support whichever seems more likely to beat him. Lots can happen between now and the convention. (Shades of Chicago??)

Lorlee Bartos
Loyal Democrat will vote for either.
After eight years of Republican failure, a yellow dog would be better.
(Lorlee, apparently now exhausted by the subject, pastes in the following background info. That's her at right with the founding father of Dziuk University, the original JHS liberal.)
The term, Yellow Dog Democrat, blossomed during all of the Hoopla which surrounded the 1928 elections, when Al Smith ran for President against Herbert Hoover. During that campaign, Senator Tom Heflin, of Alabama, declined to back his fellow Democrat, Al Smith the Governor of NY. In fact it was much worse than that, Senator Heflin decided to back Herbert Hoover, who would then go on to become President- a Republican President no less. Heflin's controversial actions were considered heresy, especially in the South. As you can imagine, quite a large number of Alabamans vehemently disagreed with Senator Heflin's decision to cross his "Party Lines". Hence, the popular saying, "I'd vote for a yellow dog if he ran on the Democratic ticket" was born! It was adopted as the proud slogan of the staunch party loyalist. At the time, this phrase certainly did not reflect well on Senator Heflin .

Tom Obert
I'm doing laundry - in anticipation of Ruthie's return from Indiana tomorrow. So what better time to respond to your request?

Initially, like most Democrats, I was excited about the prospect of finally breaking the stranglehold of "aging white males" upon the presidency of our country. In recognizing there is little to quibble about from a policy basis between Obama and Clinton, I decided Obama had the best chance to be an inspiring president in the way Kennedy was for Democrats and Reagan was for Republicans. Then the media intervened. Some how matters such as the war, health care, education, infrastructure, et al, have taken a back seat to the "gotcha" mentality that only sees fit to report on such silliness as nutty pastors (although that seems to have put to rest the "secretly a Muslim" balderdash) and American flag lapel pins. Even an old political wonk such as myself can't stand to watch this stuff anymore.

And now we have the issue of 300 jobs going wanting at the new fortress that is the American embassy in Baghdad. The proper response to this is, of course, to question the patriotism of the professional diplomats in State Department on the basis of mental competency for not applying for those jobs. As Linda Ellerbee says, "and so it goes."

- Cubbie

(There you have it. Three opinions from three liberals. Not sure what to conclude. Would have been more, but Strandberg just couldn't get his assignment written in time to turn in to Dziuk U. Some things are eternal. Elder statesman Riggs is AWOL. As always, we welcome aggressive and immediate comment on anything printed here. Please respond to trailboss@swpub.com before the rage subsides, as it is always more interesting that way.)