Super fat birthday Tuesday

22 primaries, Fat Tuesday and my birthday, all on the same day. I should have gone to New Orleans and celebrated. Instead, I'm here in Madison waiting for the 9+ inches of snow that is headed our way.

Speaking of primaries and candidates, I had two very interesting conversations in the past week. One with a friend, who in the past has been relatively liberal in his view points. When I asked what his take on the candidates were, he stated that he was leaning towards supporting John McCain. Which really surprised me. Since, when you really get down to the meat of the matter, McCain is just a continuation of what we currently have. And I'm pretty sure my friend doesn't really care for what we currently have in place, ie Bush.

The other conversation I had, and this one really blew me away, was with my brother. He tends to lean towards the right. I'm not sure I'd call him a conservative, who knows what the means anymore, but he does have more of a Republican bent. When I asked him the same question about the current candidates, his reaction was more leaning towards Obama. Which I found totally refreshing. His statement was that he felt that McCain would be a continuation of the existing "regime" (my word, not his). And he felt that Clinton would be pretty much the same. After all, we've had a Bush or a Clinton in office for the past 20 years. But Obama is a new face. Someone that might be able to attempt to make some changes. New ideas, not part of the existing establishment and someone feels that to be successful, he needs to facilitate change.

Is it possible that Obama could pull votes away from what have traditionally been votes on the Republican side? Are people that fed up with the current state of the federal government that they'd vote for change? Even though that person might be viewed as a liberal and pretty much against all that has been established by the conservatives of today?

I'm all for it. "Rock and roll" Obama!