It's the morning of the New Hampshire primary and it appears that Barack Obama will be the clear winner. The time is fast approaching for me to make up my mind about who I'll support in the upcoming Nevada caucuses.
I really don't want Hillary Clinton to be our nominee (although I'll work to get her elected if she winds up being our party's choice).
The candidate who best expresses my views is Dennis Kucinich but deep down even the most hardcore Kucinich supporter knows that he has no chance of winning.
My second choice would be John Edwards but, after failing to win in Iowa, he's losing steam in New Hampshire too. Here in Nevada, the latest polling indicates that Edwards is falling further behind and that Hillary still leads the field. However, Obama is gaining ground and appears to have moved within striking distance.
I don't see how Edwards can compete without one single victory in these early contests.
It's quite clear to me that the only viable alternative to Hillary is Barack Obama and, despite some misgivings, I will probably caucus for him.
Why do I only say probably? I think there's a better than even chance that Obama would choose Colin Powell as his Secretary of State. I find the idea of Powell serving in such a role after he helped deceive the nation and world about imaginary WMDs in Iraq to be totally repulsive.
By testifying before the UN that Sadaam Hussein was developing WMDs and asserting that his falsehoods were actually "facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence," Colin Powell did more than any single other person to convince the American public to support the invasion of Iraq. And Powell wasn't ignorant of the facts. He KNEW that there was no solid intelligence but he carried on with the charade anyway.
More recently, Colin Powell is reported to be one of Sarge ("Bomb Bomb Iran") McCain's foreign policy advisors (along with Henry Kissinger).
The fact that Barack Obama is also consulting with Powell, and that Powell won't rule out returning to a government post leads me believe that there's a better than even chance that Obama would make Powell his Secretary of State in the interest of "bipartisan cooperation," especially with Powell being so complimentary to Barack these days:
Of course, Hillary Clinton has also expressed interest in having Colin Powell work for her:
"I won’t even wait until I’m inaugurated, but as soon as I’m elected I’m going to be asking distinguished Americans of both parties — people like Colin Powell, for example, and others — who can represent our country well, including someone I know very well," Mrs. Clinton said, according to a Fox News Web report. "Because I want to send a message heard across the world. The era of cowboy diplomacy is over."
I suspect that I will end up supporting Obama in my caucus but I sure hope I'm wrong about Powell becoming Secretary of State.