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If you are so thoroughly

If you are so thoroughly convinced that Florida is crucial to the presidential nominee, you don’t “get it.”

I haven’t counted upon or considered Florida at any point in this entire cycle. I couldn’t care less if Florida votes Democratic in 2008, because Florida does not matter in 2008. The west is where the population is shifting more than to Florida, and every day each western state becomes increasingly Democratic, just like Franklin County, Ohio. Colorado is set to become a Democratic stronghold in the next decade. The same goes for Nevada and New Mexico. Oregon and Washington are growing in Democratic majorities. Midwestern states like Minnesota and Iowa are becoming more Democratic, as well, even though Minnesota has long been Democratic for presidential races. North Carolina is growing and as it grows, it trends Democratic. Virginia is trending Democratic. These states together blow Florida out of the water in population, electoral votes, money, and overall political power.

As for Florida’s trends, within the next 15 years, Raul Castro will likely be dead, but his movement of Cuban society towards western reforms will eventually open the nation more to the outside world. Soon, the Miami anti-Castro Anglo-Cuban Republican voting bloc that funnels money and support into the Florida Republican Party will be useless. Democratic margins in south Florida will increase. As more people earn college degrees throughout Florida, more will vote Democratic. That is a demographic fact that is true nationwide–the higher your level of education, the more likely you are to be liberal.

I’m not going to spend too much of my time detailing policy reasons why Obama is going to win, because the reasons have been hashed-out ad nauseam and are so obvious it’s useless to repeat them. It’s going to happen. It’s that simple.

The people I know who are most down on Obama’s chances are black or Republican. Republicans speak for themselves on why they can’t imagine Obama winning. But for my black friends, it’s a matter of disbelief that he CAN win because of his skin color. Even so, they back him 100%. This nation is not what it was 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, or 100 years ago. People have seen the detrimental effects of continuing to vote for rich white men who don’t give a damn about middle America.

Jennifer’s body

I had very little faith in the bulk of the people of this country four years ago, but my faith grows with each passing day, as more and more people openly espouse rhetoric that shows that they “get it.” Perhaps it took $4/gallon gas, I don’t know. But people now understand that we have tough choices ahead that will determine the next century of American history. They don’t want a divisive, self-centered hothead looking for a fight to sit in the Oval Office. They’ve seen that play-out for eight years. Nor do they want a tempermental, self-centered, megalomaniacal man who confuses major international political hotbuttons on a daily basis, doesn’t understand the economy, and wants to fight every nation on earth.

You can deny the truth until you turn blue in the face, but one of Obama’s earliest rhetorical points is more true today than it has ever been in the past: this is not about a candidate, it’s about this country. People are moving to Obama not because of who he is, but because of what he represents.

He is something new. He will have his failures and struggles, and he is careful to remind people of that, for fear of losing their faith in the long-term. But he knows better than anyone that this election is like a rolling stone gathering moss. The longer it drags on, the thicker the sentiment becomes. Those who have held out on and opposed Obama for this long have done so believing that there is another way out there someplace. John Edwards just reminded everyone that there is no other way. It is forward or backward, and backward will place us in a depression. John McCain is Herbert Hoover II, and everyone with intellectual honesty and a sixth-grade education is smart enough to know it.

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