My wife and some of our friends went to Grand Rapids to see Obama speak last night. I didn't go because I have some sort of achy flu thing going on.

By way of backstory, the whole Grand Rapids area is very White (predominantly Dutch by heritage) very religious, very affluent, very conservative and very Republican. They aren't the type to dislike Obama because of his race necessarilly but I'm sure his policy positions make their blond hair stand on end. We'll leave the racists to Hillary whose main demographic is undereducated white men ie. Rednecks.

Enough with the generalities. The event was held at VanAndel arena which was filled to capacity = 15,000 people. My wife’s party was among the 600 or so turned away after the place was filled, which was some 2 hours before he was scheduled to speak. This kind of turn-out, in conservative s.w. Michigan, along with the hint that Edwards will be Obama’s running mate, has to throw a hiccup in the Republican machine. That and the fact that ultra-rightwing whack-nut, Bob Barr is running as a Libertarian which will pull some people away from McCain. But, I think this will be a wash as I doubt the racist Democrats who voted for Hillary will turn around and vote for Obama in the general election. They will probably side with McCain. Not that McCain is a racist of course but they would see him as the lesser of two evils.

The only thing hobbling the Democrats now is Hillary, who continues to hang on like grim death. She knows she has no chance of winning. She’s basically holding the Democrat party and their chances of winning hostage, hoping to get the party to buy her off. Her campaign is up to it’s eyeballs in debt and she has spent a huge chunk of her and Bill’s private stash. She’s going to cause trouble until the party shows her the money, which shows what kind of character she’s made of. It’s way past time for those people to just go away.

Some people think that, if Obama is elected, he’ll be assassinated. That isn’t going to happen. This isn’t the 1960s. Our country is way different than it was then. The kind of racist passions that killed Martin Luther King in 1968 are nearly gone now. Hell, my 80 year old father-in-law is going to vote for Obama and he used to be a big racist. People change. That older generation is passing away and younger folks generally don’t think in those terms. I think an Obama presidency will be Carteresque. Like Carter, Obama will do some good things but will ultimately be a weak president. But, the Cold War is over so how much damage could he do really? Of course, I thought the same when Bill "Slick-Willy" Clinton was elected. But perhaps it’s time for a weak president. I’m sure that’s what the Europeans and others are hoping for.