Whom to Vote For?

I passed my final exams, the kids are asleep, and thanks to a brilliant suggestion by my friend Matt to use Google Reader, I am finding myself with an extra twenty minutes today.  I am going to use that time to contemplate my choices for president - and I hope, maybe to start a bit of dialogue about what others are thinking. 

 I need to start the sorting of my thoughts with total honesty; in the deepest, darkest recesses of my heart I really want to live in Sweden.  I want everyone to have quality health care, I want children in inner-city schools to have AP and music classes, I want poor elderly people to have decent housing, I want prisoners to have gardens, and I want to cut our military-industrial complex to help eliminate poverty and build schools throughout the entire world. I am also completely comfortable with the idea of being taxed like crazy to pay for it. I also understand that this isn't going to happen anytime soon, and there may be a lot of really good reasons why it shouldn't - but it is still what I want. 

 So whom should I vote for? There are a lot of things that come to mind right away. I want someone who I feel is competent, and who I don't think would make me nauseated every time I heard them on television. I am trying to separate out my emotional reaction to individuals and see a bigger picture. I really like some of the policies John Edwards has put forward. I feel a little fluttering of inspiration in my stomach when I listen to Barack Obama. I think Hillary Clinton could be a very competent president (and she's a Seven Sisters Alumna, too), but there are a lot of buts to the idea of her as a candidate. I kind of secretly love Dennis Kucinich. I have been pretty impressed by both Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee at times. 

 While my Dad is a major political junkie, I get worn out very quickly, but I still am excited about the coming election, especially if I can avoid watching any campaign commercials.