Ready In 10 continued to show their appreciation for my coming to Nashua Friday night; they even mentioned me in their blog. Their grasp of geography is somewhat lacking - I live in New Hampshire, not Maine - but as I commented, it doesn't diminish the fact that they ruled the roost.
We're now a week removed from Super Tuesday, and on the Republican side, things have significantly shaken out. McCain looks to almost certainly have the nomination locked up; despite this, Ron Paul isn't bowing out of the race. He did say, however, that he's scaling back the size of his campaign, as well as turning one eye toward winning re-election to the House of Representatives. Even the most ardent Paul supporters now must admit that it'll be nearly impossible for him to prevail in St. Paul. I can't vote for either of the two other GOP candidates. McCain is willing to commit us to Iraq for a century should he deem it necessary, and Huckabee is trying to pass himself as conservative despite his tax and spend record as Governor of Arkansas. As for the Democrats...well, they've got a dogfight on their hands, but the momentum seems to be shifting in favor of the junior Senator from Illinois. I really don't think the Democratic "superdelegates" will tip the balloting in favor of either Obama or Clinton; such an outcome becomes even less likely if Obama keeps winning states. There was never a chance of me voting for Hillary - not only did she select my state to carpetbag her way to the Senate, she doesn't trust the average layman. I'll let David Boaz explain this in more detail. Obama seems like an appealing candidate - by making a great case for change, he certainly talks a good game. But he has a voting record as liberal as Clinton - the core of his political philosophy is the expansion of the government into people's lives, something that I fundamentally oppose. If we see an Obama v. McCain general election, I'll likely vote for the Libertarian candidate, or not vote at all.
I recently read a thread on the Rudius Media Message Board about a young lady who started a blog on February 5, with the intent of committing suicide in 90 days. After reading the entries posted thus far and her reasons for this course of action, I can't understand it at all. She says that there's no greater purpose for her to live. To that, I say "so what?" I don't have a greater purpose for my life, and I have plenty of cause for anguish. But having been way down at many points over the years, I've come to realize that whatever life throws at you, something will come along to bring you back. You might not know what that is, and it may be something you wouldn't expect at all, but there'll always be something. For me, there are days where the only such thing is a year and three months in the future. To throw away a life for reasons so pointless is something that saddens me incredibly.
And on that note, I say sayonara for the evening; I might be back with another entry on Thursday - that is, if I don't drink myself stupid in "celebration" of Valentine's Day.