Rick Santorum voted against a Bush appointee on Wednesday. …WHAT?! His main reason for voting against Robert Gates was because of his support for talks with Iran. Santroum said the United States needs to confront Iran rather than, “engaging someone who is at war with us. I think he (Gates) is in error.”

I suppose it is Santorum’s parting shot leaving himself with his very conservative legacy. While Santorum was very entertaining as a senator from time to time, I think I can speak for this site as a whole in saying we are eager for Senator Elect Bob Casey, Jr. to replace him.

Just the other day in my United States History class, my fairly conservative professor was criticizing the mainstream media as too liberal and said about the mainstream media being based out of New York and Los Angeles. He said I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t think like people from those cities. Perhaps he is on to something. The mainstream media are the people trying to spoon feed us Hillary 2008. What true progressive could want this? Her main concerns are with a political legacy rather than progress. Why else would her views change so much so fast?

Barack Obama is much more dynamic and exciting. He is a fresh face that can beat Hillary. As I have stated so many times on this blog, I live in rural Pennsylvania where small town swing voters do not particularly like Hillary. The mainstream media sometimes acts as though Hillary already has the White House in 2008. No matter what Hillary does to make herself moderate, she cannot lose that reputation as a liberal New York carpetbagger who is the wife of an adulterer in rural areas. Don’t get me wrong, I like Hillary. She is a great Senator, but I just feel that she is playing politics way too much with her potential 2008 bid.

Barack Obama has only been in the Senate for two years. He does not have a lengthy voting record that can be attacked by a conservative opponent. Obama is just that kind of guy who you would feel bad for trying to attack. He just seems like an all around nice guy.

I mean, I just have so much support for this guy I don’t even know how to word it. Let me put it like this…last week I saw that new movie BOBBY. Obviously, the movie portrays Bobby Kennedy as this larger than life guy who was going to save the country. It makes you think, wow, why can’t we have someone like that today?

RIGHT AFTER the movie, both my buddy and I started talking about it and we realized we were both thinking the same thing. The only person who can be like that today is Barack Obama.

I am telling you, this is the guy we need in 2008. I really think he could put this country on the right direction. He would be the first African American president. America is ready for an African American president!
Even Neil Young thinks Obama can do it:

Someone walks among us
And I hope he hears the call
And maybe it’s a woman
Or a black man after all

Yeah maybe it’s Obama
But he thinks that he’s too young

Well, Neil, it does not seem like that anymore. Obama is talking about running! Now, let’s get behind him and send this country back in the right direction! Because no matter how many video game violence awareness ads she gets in with Joe Lieberman, Hillary can’t win back the heartland.

With the current state of Washington, the one lead by the Republicans that is leaving, one doesn’t have to look very far in the newspapers, maybe the B section, to see that other than the Iraq situation—which has no real good solution, and the Republican corruption, there has been little in new ideas. When congress comes back with democratic majorities, as long as Byrd doesn’t pass (he may outlive them all though!) the real focus may be on the 2008 election which is not far away in Washington’s mind, nor the lobbyists, big donors, and the media.

But this won’t change enough if Hillary Clinton wins. And yes, she may have a very good change of winning. How do I know? It really goes back to Ronald Reagan, and perhaps one of the most overlooked aspect of the Reagan revolution which the Democratic Leadership Council understood; that being how much the media and populism of both blue and red work on Americans, especially the swing voter. Simple premise: Star power works and Clinton has mastered it.

But what makes my day is the fact that Obama may run. Now, as of right now, I don’t see how he can’t run. He has gotten a lot of free-press and is frequently mentioned in the major newspapers and the 24-hour news systems. Furthermore, the reason why he excites me is that he is really a policy centric leader with a progressive reformer streak. But he doesn’t have the polarization because he is smooth.

In a month of surprises within the Bush White House, here comes a new one. John Bolton resigns kind of out of nowhere. I, myself, thought that Bolton would stick around and try to get an appointment through the Senate, but it is speculated that with a Democratic majority it would have been a big bickering session for him to try to get approved. Bush, who seems to absolutely adore Bolton, seems to have been taken by surprise.

Bush has said he accepts his resignation with deep regret. The appointment of Bolton was controversial from the beginning. Critics have said he is too contentious for diplomacy. The real question is, who is next? I am hoping it is an appointment with little controversy. As a Democrat, I feel our party needs to avoid contention and be the party that gets things done and gets passed partisan bickering. In order to have a strong fairing in 2008, it is what must be done.