Rice, not Potatoes

It's been an extraordinary year. We've got well defined candidates and it's a fight to the finish between the good old boys network vs the green idealists, making for a most compelling drama.

It's sure got us talking. My youngest says its the topic at parties, even for those too young to vote. Dinner parties I attend start and end with it, and I'm left wondering when the last time a Presidential race stirred us like this.

I have a rabid Republican in my life; well, more than one. I get that they want to keep what they work hard to earn. The Republican party protects and preserves through slow and steady routines; they go with the flow, stick with tried and true methodology, their world stays flat.

Not me. I'm an idealistic Democrat through and through -- a flower child believing the world is bettered through altruism and heart. We have to dream it before we can live it or, like the Velveteen Rabbit, it will never be real. My world isn't just round, it's in a constant state of evolution that has no room for same old, same old.

For a long time, I begged off political discussions. But we're now in a place where I've got to be more informed and insightful, where I can listen to the Republican hyperbole and know how to recognize and extract the kernels of truth found there. We all seem to agree there's a desperate need for a mainstream candidate solid and steady, visionary and brilliant, who represents the best of our country rather than extreme swings right or left. We'd sure warm to a competition that included Dr. Rice.