Elections (Vote for Obama)
As expected, Obama and Hillary pretty much split the delegates on Super Tuesday. According to CNN, Obama's leading Hillary in pledged delegates (603 to 590), but more superdelegates have declared themselves for Hillary, giving her an estimated 783 to 709 lead at the moment. The superdelegates are all politicians of one sort or another; they include all Democratic members of Congress, selected Democratic governors, and national party officials. It's unsurprising that they're going for the political insider by a 2:1 margin.
I, as I've mentioned, support Obama. I would have preferred Kucinich, but he never went anywhere and he's out now, anyway. I don't like Hillary; I think she's too much of a Washington politician, willing to take or give almost anything in order to increase her political clout. I think she's more likely to continue the abuses of Presidential power than she is to try to undo the damage done by the Bush Administration.
On the other hand, I really like Obama. He's more than just not-Hillary; he's a candidate I can genuinely, for the most part, get behind. He's got a long record of finding ways to work with others, both Democrats and Republicans to achieve his political goals while supporting--not tearing down--others. When we went to war in Iraq, he was an Illinois State Senator, but he still spoke out against the war. Not only did he speak up, he led protests. He's gotten endorsements from people like Lawrence Lessig because of his espousal of open governance. I think he will go a long way towards correcting the abuses propogated by Bush and company. There are still things about him that concern me. I occasionally feel that he's being too much like a stereotypical politician in some of his speeches: promising things vaguely to avoid specific promises that a) he might be held to and b) people might object to; dodging questions rather than aswering them directly so people won't hear things they don't like. He's also taken money from a lot of the same large corporations that are giving heavily to Hillary, which is going to incur some sense of indebtedness. But I think his positives far outweigh the points on which I have concerns.
There's also the point that I think Obama's a lot more electable than Hillary. Because he's good at dealing fairly with people from other ideologies (without compromising himself, even), he appeals more to voters of all stripes. Contrast to Hillary, who is outright hated by large subsets of the Republicans in this country.
For a much more lengthy coverage of what's good about Obama, see this post on Obsidian Wings.
Because I think that Obama would be a much better candidate than Hillary, I think that the upcoming primaries are incredibly important, especially because he's trailing her in total delegates even though he's leading in pledged (elected) delegates. Maryland's primary is February 12th, next Tuesday. If you don't know what your polling location is, check out the Maryland Voter Information System. Washington DC and Virginia also have their primaries on the 12th. Pennsylvania's primary is on April 22nd. (So if you live in Pennsylvania and aren't yet registered to vote, you still have time to complete that registration.)
So please, go out and vote. (And please vote for Obama.)