When will she stop?

Barack Obama's acceptance speech in Raleigh on the night of the primaries will likely be given all the praise that the media typically heaps upon him. I was particularly struck by his references to John McCain and general election positions - almost as if he were talking past Hillary. As I write this, CBS is the only network to call the Indiana race for Clinton. All others run subtexts that the race is too close to call with Hillary leading by four points and 20% of the vote uncounted.

Listening to him, I wondered if Hillary and the Democratic Party was interested in doing more damage to itself using continued efforts to look for a way to take the nomination away from a black. No doubt this would cause some type of riff among the black community, a staple voting bloc for the Democratic party for decades. It would appear, again, that perhaps this 'super delegate' thing wasn't such a great idea after all.

With some of the recent shift in momentum for the Hillary campaign, partly due to the Rev. Wright issue, he campaign has been making a case to the super delegates that she's the only candidate able to defeat McCain in a general election. Key to this is the fact that a pitch to the 'super delegates' is even necessary, or possible. By now, there is no way that Clinton can catch Obama mathematically in pledged delegates -- and yet, she continues to press on... as a "fighter". Once more, she presses on indifferent to the idea that her campaign could do irreparable harm to the relationship between black community and the Democratic Party.
Apparently she isn't interested in this as a possibility. One might even think that her interest in gaining or maintaining power trumps even the ideals that she claims to stand for. Bill Clinton's use of innuendo and divisive politics on the campaign trail merely affirms the idea of power over principle among the campaign and its supporters. Then again, what is to be expected from the Clintons?

Sometimes I wonder what we're doing

I've often been asked what it is that causes me to seek out increased career opportunities, pet projects, knowledge, and a host of other things that I get myself into from time to time. On the day after tax day, it's a wonder that many seek to improve their station in life through education, initiative and hard work - particularly once they learn that as their personal income increases government will shift its view of them. Watching the Democratic Primary Debate this evening, I'm amused to see the two candidates argue over which taxes they'll raise, which they'll leave alone, and how best to handle taxes of the "middle class". The joke here is that I imagine that the majority of the population isn't quite sure what constitutes the "middle class". What income levels would you think makes up the lower, middle, and upper classes?

Anyway, as both of these candidates have proposed massive increases in spending to "invest" in various programs and initiatives I'm left wondering why I work so hard - seemingly for my own family - when I know full well that my hard work will be seen as an opportunity for politicians to invent vote-buying programs. After all, it might seem logical that every newly created government job means one vote for the candidate or political party that created it. And this new job would be created whether I thought it was a good idea or not.

Do we have incentives beyond personal drive to increase our station? Or is our government in fact creating incentives for us to sit back and rely on the gains of others to take care of us. Will my attempts to advance be successful - and if so, how will I react to a punishing tax system. Sometimes I wonder just what in the world I'm doing.