Finally, and hopefully not too late

It appears like Barack Obama is going to be the Democratic nominee for President. After the longest primary campaign in the history of presidential politics, the selection of our next President isn't that far off. The Democrats began this campaign with a tremendous advantage due to Bush's enormous blunders over the last 8 years, but as their campaign has become more and more vitriolic, their advantage has begun to dwindle. McCain has had it relatively easy the last few months, comfortably ripping both candidates, while the Democrats rip each other instead of responding to McCain.

In spite of McCain's comfortable last few months, most national polls still give Obama a small advantage in the general election, but the enormous discontent with the Republicans has waned somewhat, making this general election more unpredictable. McCain has been able to flip-flop on all sorts of issues the last few months, and hopefully with some attention, those changes of heart will be called what they are--political pandering, not sincere changes that are better for the country. Ultimately, I see Obama beating McCain and becoming our next President--something that will be great for our country and it will put a leader in office who has the intelligence and the people skills to help repair our damaged relations with the rest of the world.

Obama may lack years of experience in Washington like McCain, but his intelligence and wisdom will play a greater role in how he governs than any amount of experience could. As we have seen so clearly from President Bush, choosing the right people to help run an administration is the most important thing a President can do. If Bush had chosen to rely on Colin Powell instead of Cheney and Rumsfeld, he may be viewed as a great President instead of a pathetic one. Obama may be trendy, and he may be garnering votes because of the emotion he inspires in people, but he has shown good judgement throughout he short political career. The fact that he picked the right people to help him run a campaign that was good enough to defeat the Clinton machine shows high levels of wisdom in choosing good people to work with.

Electing a black man to be our President is an enormous event and one that would have seemed unimaginable 50 years ago, even 20, but it should provide a path for healing the racial tensions that are still very existant in this country. So hopefully, Obama's nomination by the Democrats isn't too late and he gets the chance to be our next President.

Global Warming, angry sports God's, or...?

The Boston Celtics play the Atlanta Hawks in a game 7 today. This series was supposed to go 4 games, maybe 5 if Kevin Garnett died, but not 7 games. The game is in Boston, and Boston is 3-0 in game 7's vs. the Hawks, so I think the Celtics will win, but the fact that they could lose today and be eliminated in the first round by the Hawks is crazy. What if one of Boston's big 3 gets hurt? or what if the Hawks play their best game of the season? if either one of these scenarios happens, the Celtics will probably lose, and then they can have the joy of being on the wrong side of the biggest upset in NBA playoff history.

I know that global warming is supposed to change the weather in crazy ways, but it must effect sports as well. That seems to be the only explanation for the Celtics collapse, or maybe the Patriots cheating scandal angered the sports God's so much that all the New England teams will face a curse for years to come. The Pats blew the Super Bowl, Boston doesn't look good, and the Red Sox are doing okay but some of their big stars are under performing or seriously injured, meaning the run of dominance is over unless New Englanders can find a way to appease the angry sports God's. In spite of my general dislike for Boston sports teams, I find myself rooting for the Celtics because Danny Ainge is the architect of the team, and the resurrection of his reputation is gone if the the Celtics lose the series. He went from reviled to loved in one season after pulling off some huge trades that led the Celtics to the biggest single season turn around in NBA history, but that is all pointless if they don't make the NBA finals, or at least the Eastern Conference finals. Anyway, I'm out of theories, go Celtics, and I am out (think Jim Rome).

School Sucks...kind of

I keep saying how much I hate school and how excited I am to finish my last final tomorrow. However, now that school is out for the summer I am going to have to find a crappy job, and after about 2 days of that, I'm going to have a hankerin for homework. Stacy has been cool enough to make all the money so I can finish school sometime before I'm 40, but she's going to be out of commission because she's having a baby (weak excuse)--meaning I get to tout my almost political science degree skills to potential employers who only want to know how well I can clean a toilet, give someone change

School and the MTC are really similar--when I was in the MTC I hated it after about two days of 12 straight hours in class learning portugese, but when it came time to leave and actually go out and work, I got nervous. I got nervous for a reason, trying to talk to real Brazilians--not MTC teachers trying to act like a tough investigator--would actually matter. I didn't miscalculate, I walked like 10 miles my first day, I couldn't understand anything, and my companion was lame. It will be just like that when I eventually graduate, I'll go work for some lame employer and wish that I could just go back to school. Oh well, I guess I get instant gratification with a crappy summer job--7 bucks an hour--whereas with school, I keep telling myself that someday someone will actually pay me instead of me getting raped by the bookstore and the registrar....the end.

A new blog

My old blog wouldn't let anyone view it, so I've created a new one. I don't have much to ramble about right now....but I will mention that I hate BYU basketball and I'm going to find a way to keep hating them. Every year, they play better than the previous year, but they keep losing in the first round of the tournament. My favorite team will be whoever wins the championship--this may be serious bandwagoning, but justifiably so--and then I will always be satisfied with the results. I bet that some of the BYU basketball players haven't been paying a full tithe or God would have helped them win, or maybe Dave Rose is really a closet Jehovahs Witness. They should have one of the Apostles coach the team and then they would win some games....seriously, think about it, God wouldn't let an apostle coached BYU team lose.