Race

I neglected to mention in my last post that I was the only Indian at the party. Not a huge surprise really, most of the time I went anywhere in Dallas, I was the only Indian. This was a little different though, since there was only one white person and everyone else was black. I had never really hung out with black people before (my best friend in Dallas notwithstanding), but everyone was pretty friendly and cool to hang out with.

Obama finally clinched the Democratic nomination. It's still hard to believe, from lots of different angles.
- He had little political experience.
- He didn't even have a brand-name (Bush didn't really have political experience either, but at least he had a name). In fact, his name could very easily have worked against him - and might still in the general election.
- He was running against the entire Democratic establishment - everyone had written him off before he even started.
- By not taking money from lobbyists, he had to work even harder to raise money.
It's also interesting that a black person got the nomination before a woman, when the former was given the right to vote in 1965 while the latter was granted it in the 1920's.

It should be a very interesting election. The party's just getting started.