Time For A Change

During his convention acceptance speech in 2000, one of Dick Cheney's applause lines was that "it was time for them [Clinton & Gore] to go." Well seven years later the American people have decided it is time for Bush and Cheney to, or as Sen. Barack Obama put it in Kansas City - it's time for a change.

Approximately 3,000 people paid $25 a piece to hear a speech by Obama in Kansas City on Saturday, more than eight months prior to the Missouri primary. For comparisonn, Sen. John Kerry filled the same hall in 2004 around the Missouri primary, yet the event was free.

The Kansas City event, and many others around the country, must be the Republican's worst nightmare - for the crowd was made up of a cross section of America, not just the committed political veterans.

One can understand why Republicans worked so hard to limit access to the voting booth. They know they are outnumbered and if the people ever showed up to vote they would have little chance any election.

According to a Newsweek poll the top three Democratic candidates (Obama, Edwards & Clinton) all would defeat the top GOP candidates, with Obama and Edwards winning by an easier margin. Edwards and Obama offer hope for a better future for the country, which for nearly half of the country, has been missing since late 2000.

The major question is whether the changes in the primary system will allow Hillary Clinton, who would make a fine president, but would set the right into a scare mongering campaign that might fool just enough people to elect a Republican, to win the nomination.

If the press had acted responsibly in the 1990s there is no way George W. Bush would have been close enough to "win" the 2000 election and it is difficult to believe the press would act any differently around the Clintons this time around. If anything, the press would be out for blood for being proved wrong and for that many in the public realized they are in part responsible what has taken place in the last seven years.

It's time for a change.