It ain't over till it's over!

In 2002, the San Francisco Giants, my team, were six outs away from winning their first World Series since Willie Mays was a young man toiling in the outfield of the old Polo Grounds. To my great dismay, the Angels came back in game six and went on to win game 7 and the World Series. Nothing is inevitable -- as we saw yesterday, the top 2 teams in the nation went down to defeat.

And so it is with the political season. Hillary Clinton has tried to declare herself the inevitable nominee. We've seen the polls, which give her double digit leads over Barack Obama and the other candidates. But in Iowa, Obama holds a slight lead and is gaining strength. There is a reason we play the games and hold the elections. Polls don't always tell the whole story.

Frank Rich writes today in the NY Times about just this issue. It's entitled: "Who's Afraid of Barack Obama?" As he shows, the pundits so far have more often than not been wrong. Wasn't Fred Thompson Ronald Reagan reincarnate? And yet at the end of the day, he's so far shown himself to be a dud. Mike Huckabee was left for dead, and yet despite virtually no money is on the rise.

Iowa takes place a week from tomorrow. If Barack Obama wins Iowa, that should derail Hillary's inevitability train, at least for a time. And if he wins the nomination, as Rich shos, the GOP won't know what to do. After all, they're hoping for Hillary. They're building the whole campaign as if she's the candidate. But what will hold for her, won't for him. Those silly ideas about him being a secret Muslim and such simply don't hold water. He is who he is, a relatively young man whose life experiences will give him a very distinct view of the world. And, as Rich shows, even most Republicans like him. Hillary is a lot like Rudy -- you're for or against both of them. There's no middle ground. Sure if Hillary is the nominee I'll vote for her -- because I don't think we can deal with 4 more years of GOP rule, but someone like Obama is a much better choice.

No one is perfect; he's made his mistakes, and yet some of those "mistakes" have been shown to be ahead of the curve (like talking to the Syrians/Iranians) or chasing down Bin Laden into Pakistan, with or without the permission of the Pakistani government.

Finally, all this garbage about America not being ready for a Black president. Well, I think it's time to grow up. That we can't be led by someone not a white male is simply an outdated myth.

So, let's see what January 3 brings. My marker is on Barack Obama!