I know there are a lot of heartfelt feelings about Obama's winning the nomination.

I just want to relate a little story of why, as a white, middle aged woman, it means so much to me.

Sorry for the short diary.  As some of you know, I have a lot going on in my life right now and most of it is not good.

But I have seen some history and speculation here that is lacking and I think leading people to the wrong conclusions.

This has been an eye opening campaign.  I'm not sure how much of it is due to the scales falling from my eyes in my growing decrepitude or how much is from the situation allowing what was once hidden to blossom forth like the stench from my son's gym bag.

The Office of Management and Budget has the budget up in a gazillion different pdf's.

I posted a couple of times yesterday about the release of data for the budget but no one seemed interested.

There will be a press briefing at 1pm eastern with the Department of Health and Human Services where they will go through their "Budget in Brief".

As I said yesterday, the budget includes $178 billion in cuts to Medicare over the next 5 years.

In the ongoing primary battles on this site and others, I am being increasingly reminded of a character from Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein.

To write or not to write.  That is the question.

I have been wondering where to put my money in the Presidential race.  I usually don't hold out this long but have felt so disillusioned this year by the process and by government in general that I didn't feel compelled.

More and more I find myself leaning toward Senator Obama.

I have long been involved in politics in general and campaigns in particular.

The first campaign I work on was Mo Udall's.  Ol' Second Place Mo.

I was a giddy eighth grader in a gifted program in Phoenix when I met, and fell hopelessly for, this tall, funny, congenial man named Mo.  I kept a scrapbook on the campaign (it's in a box somewhere), volunteered on the phones, and stuffed envelopes.

That election was my first, in a long line, of political disappointments.