Tomorrow is the Presidential Primary in Ohio, Rhode Island, Vermont and a little ol' state called Texas. I work for the county, here in Texas, and as mysterious as county government is, the one thing that nearly every county controls is elections. This county is no different. Usually, in terms of Presidential primaries, by the time things get to Texas the show is over. But not this year, at least on the Democratic side of things. So, things have been pretty busy at work. I've mentioned it in other venues, but I'd like the record to reflect that dirtdirt.com, and our vast voting block, endorses Barack Obama for Democratic Nominee to the Presidency. I like Hillary Clinton, and I probably would have voted for her over any other mainstream democrat. If she gets the nomination I'll vote for her happily and with a clear conscience, so long as she doesn't blaze out. But. I think this time around, due to the epic ninnyhammering on the part of George W. Bush (largely - but not exclusively - in terms of the war in Iraq) coupled with watershed critical mass headspace for environmental issues, I think the country is ready to make a little bit of a leap. Obama is not the be-all, end-all savior, but he is running his campaign on positivity, communication and hope, and those are the things we need now most. He's still a wonk, don't get me wrong. He knows the intricacies of policy, and his platform is pretty straightforward, sensible, moderate, democrat, vintage 2008. But he is running on the idea that people not only can be inspired to make our country better, they must be inspired to make our country better. People need to be inspired again if this (where 'this' is America) thing is going to work. It is clear to me that America needs to perform some community service, or do some sit-ups, or whatever metaphor you like. I think Obama can help us get to that place. It's extremely cool, I think, that the two Democrats are a woman and a black guy. One way or the other we are living in the future. I have heard a bit of rumbling lately that says the only reason Hillary Clinton does not have this sewn up is because America is even more sexist than it is racist. I don't buy that interpretation. If Fiddy Cent was running against Ms. Clinton, would he get the votes? Or if Lindsay Lohan was running against Mr. Obama, and losing, would you say "Yeah, but it's because AMERICA IS TOO SEXIST TO ELECT LINDZ!" Well, you might say it, but it wouldn't be true. She'd lose because she's far too young. Come on. It's in the constitution. Speaking of "Too young to be president", the Republican nominee this time around will nearly certainly be 71 year old John McCain. As a Democrat, this guy frightens me a bit. In some ways he is moderate, and may appeal to moderates from the Democrats. He also is a war hero, and he really was extremely brave, and sacrificed an incalculable amount for this country. Being tortured as a POW for years sort of tends to give you a gravitas about foreign policy that both Clinton and Obama don't have in as ready supply, and so much of this election is and will be about the war. Ultimately, though, I think his age will keep him back. Not that he is too old, exactly, just that, standing up there next to Clinton or (even more so) Obama is going to make McCain look like a cranky old white guy and relic of a past time. Honorable, but irrelevant. Well, there's that whole Nakatomi plaza thing, too*. When I was in maybe 10th grade I was in the musical Grease. I played the part of Roger. It was fun. Anyway, at the auditions for Grease about a third of the girls read their lines in very earnest, but bladder-wrenching and embarrassingly bad, Australian accents. See, 'cause the movie Grease was so popular, and Olivia Newton-John played the role of Sandy in it. And, being Australian, she had an Australian accent. At that point in time ONJ had so much going for her, a great voice, achingly cute, it-girl, but no-one was thinking she was Meryl Streep. So, why try and program a convincing American accent into Olivia Newton-John when you can just put in one or two lines of dialogue mentioning that Sandy is from Australia? Problem solved! The only casualty is the excruciating ozzy accents that 14 year old girls will be brandishing at Grease auditions for the next 1000 years**. My mom didn't like the movie Grease for this reason, at least peripherally. She, being a theater person, had seen the show on Broadway, and thought it was cute enough but when the movie came out she thought they took an OK show and sort of missed the joke. Now, I tend to agree, but when I was a kid I thought she was nutty. The same way I thought she was nutty when she very calmly tried to explain to the 12 year old me what was objectionable about the Mötley Crüe video for "Looks That Kill" - you know, the one where Mötley Crüe has a bunch of half-naked, futuristic babes locked up like cattle in a razorwire pen? Pff! Whatever mom! Interestingly, the two best songs in the movie Grease ("Hopelessly Devoted To You" and "Grease") are not in the play at all. They were written for the movie. I understand that in the recent revivals of Grease they have included these songs. I wonder if they have given Sandy that Australian accent yet. Funny, also, the events in portrayed in Grease take place in 1958, and the film was produced in 1978 and it's now 2008. Looking at the 19'50s that they are showing in the film, it's clear that their portrayal is based on how distant and naive the '50s were from the '70s. Well, the '70s are farther from us now than the '50s were from the '70s, if you get me. Do the '70s seem that distant? Is it just because I lived through the '70s (albeit as a kid)? Is it because the '60s happened in between them? I tell you what, though: there sure weren't viable candidates for President who didn't look like John McCain in the '50s OR the '70s. Even in films. That took until the '90s*. So we've got that going for us. *John McClain is the name of the character that Bruce Willis plays in "Die Hard". It has taken me a long time to train myself not to say John McCain's name with that great, evil accent the way Alan Rickman says John McClain's name in "Die Hard". **In the future "Grease" will be taught in school alongside "MacBeth" and "Die Hard". ***""Die Hard", notably, had a Japanese guy as the president of the huge company that the building belongs to. Not exactly the same thing, admittedly, but at least it allows me to talk about Die Hard again.