Hillary C. maybe has a shot at AR, but what about B. Obama--why

[m.standridge]

does it always have to feel this way? I feel so embarassed when I think of how we'd get viewed, in that respect.
Giuliani against Obama, with 22 states with no paper-receipt voting machine systems at this time. Doesn't look good, does it?
Yet, even if the machines were all on the up and up--e.g., here in AR we have reformed and now have paper receipt machines--what chance would the Senator from Illinois have to carry this state?
On the other hand, Hillary might. I wish I could be one of those people who can gloss over the feelings about this.
I don't have a problem with Hillary carrying the state. That, in itself, is a-ok, wonderful even, should it happen.

I'm just saying, I'm older now, I remember how we had to harden our hearts to Jesse Jackson's impassioned Presidential campaigns in the '80s because "he can't carry anything but DC". I'm tired of hardening my heart that way. It just is tiring.
I love this state, and in many ways, the people here. We are common people, and poor people. We generally benefit from Democratic Party policies, even more than other parts of the South. Yet how often do we admit to it?

And, I grow impatient now, as a white male blue-collar worker (who's gotten educated, to little avail), with my little green, but poor, state.
I want to pull us up and out of this pit we stay in--always 49th in this and that (good thing). One thing that could help, is to let go of our racial prejudice.
I really think a lot of us are genuinely trying. And I'm proud of that.
I just am too old for this hard-hearted thinking anymore--scared of Obama as a candidate because "he can't carry Arkansas."
Just venting, I guess. It's just that, I wish it could always be just the voting machine reforms that were the problem. But you know and I know, it's a heart-achin' truth that that isn't the only problems with getting Democrats to actually vote for this or that candidate.