Voting

From our local small town (as opposed to the big town) paper:

County election board officials said 46 percent of the the county's registered Democrats and 47 percent of the county's registered Republicans voted Tuesday.

Those figures blew away the 1992 record of about 29 percent, state election board secretary Mike Clingman said.

Cleveland County has 133,035 registered voters. Of that number, Republicans claim 63,785 according to January 2007 figures while Democrats have 56,619 on their rolls.

Statewide, more than 750,000 Oklahoma Democrats and Republicans turned out for the state's presidential primary election, obliterating a record set in 1992.

Clingman said almost 42 percent of Oklahoma's 1.8 million Democratic and Republican voters went to the polls in the state's 77 counties Tuesday, easily eclipsing the 1992 record of 28 percent.

Well 46 percent and 47 percent are pretty good numbers especially for a primary. I wasn't expecting numbers nearly so high especially on the Republican side. Actually the Democrat side is surprising to me as well. There is a lot more interest than I expected.

I kind of feel sorry for Hilary Clinton and Mitt Romney. I just read that Hilary (funny to act like I am on a first name basis with her!) had contributed $5 million of her own money to her campaign. And then I read that Mitt (might as well be personal with him, too) had spent $35 million of his own money on his race. I think I would keep the money and let someone else be the prez.

Just doesn't "feel" like there will be another Clinton presidency. There is just not much undecided for her and there are a bunch of people in the "decidedly no" camp. Wednesday morning when I got up she was ahead in delegates and by the time I finished exercising she was behind in delegates. That news was kind of lost though in the terrible news about the tornadoes and all the fatalities. But Obama raising so much money and doing so well in actual vote getting seems to really have a big mo thing going.

It looks to me that Hilary actually did a remarkably good job of being a senator (and I mostly disagree with her point of view). I was surprised at that because I actually thought the senate job was really just a stepping stone. Then again what do I know. Obama is very much unknown to me in practical terms. He is a really good speech maker but honestly I don't see the evidence for the actual work result. He is certainly much more liberal in his positions. But again it is just impression and opinion.

Romney said he was continuing but it is hard for me now to see how he can actually win. Huckabee, I think, will stay in for quite a while. That's so strange, too, that another man from Hope, Arkansas would be running and doing such an amazing job. He has almost no money and has spent very little but achieved amazing results. I have to say I am impressed with his weight loss and his dedication to exercise. I don't really think he is vying for a veep position though despite the punditocracy comments.

McCain seems remarkably different to me than what I am hearing from so many of my conservative Republican friends. They really hold grudges and they view McCain as almost a Democrat and as being wishy-washy. He absolutely does not seem wishy-washy to me - just the contrary in fact. My more middle ground friends in both parties and Independents actually find McCain less extreme and more practical. The same things that anger the far righties appeals to the middle grounders. The lefties hate most everyone including McCain.

I think the country is more inclined to find someone in the middle and someone who is practical. If I had to place a bet right now (and I wouldn't) I'd give the edge to McCain. Also, I think the D's will get an even larger majority control of both senate and house. And the country seems more inclined to divide up the power now which also points more to an R in the White House.

So that's my considered take on the political front and I've written it down and when the election actually occurs everyone can come back here and read about how wrong I am.