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Recursion

(56,582 posts)
Sun May 31, 2015, 09:21 AM May 2015

My vote probably doesn't matter in the primary [View all]

I'm a registered voter in Washington, DC. By Federal law (this is the only jurisdiction for which Congress gets to decide the primary dates -- not even Puerto Rico or Guam get that) DC's primary is June 14th.

Because my official domicile is within the US (this is required for Foreign Service families), I can't join the Democrats Abroad primary, which votes on March 8th. That might have an effect. As it is, there will probably be a clear winner by mid-June (God, I hope so...)

Anyways, where I stand now is this:

I'm not a huge fan of Clinton. I've mentioned before that I think administrative capabilities are the most important qualifications of a President, and her previous national campaign and tenure as Secretary of State leave me less than impressed.

Sanders is something of a cipher to me because I haven't seen him do anything other than advocate policies I agree with. That in itself is great, but a President's ideological correctness tells me very little about his or her ability to effectively be President. He doesn't have the strike in front of him for me that Clinton does, and I look forward to seeing how he handles a national campaign (some people lament national campaigns, but I think they are very important because they are pretty good at revealing a candidate's administrative skills). So, I'm more than happy to vote for Sanders if he shows himself capable of handling a national campaign.

O'Malley I've liked for a long time, coming from his neck of the woods (I worked in Baltimore when he was mayor, actually). He's got some issues with ignoring police brutality, and that could be a huge problem in this election cycle, but I'm more than willing to listen.

Webb worries me. I was an enthusiastic supporter for his Senate bid because I wanted to turn the chamber blue (and we did!), but I don't think he's prime-time material for our party right now. But, again, I'm willing to listen.

My original choice was Schweitzer, but he seems to have given up on his run, sadly.

Anyways, my vote will be so late that it probably won't matter, but that is where I stand as it is.

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