I voted at about 10:30am this morning. I live out near farm country, aka the boonies (compared to the greater metropolitan area.) Voting was at a township hall for a “town” that consists of one intersection. There isn’t even a stoplight, just a 4-way stop sign kind of thing.

Anyways, first I broke the rules by snagging the closest parking spot to the door, pulling in so that my Obama ‘08 bumper sticker could be seen by anyone at the door of the building or walking in. I didn’t have any campaigning agendas, I just got lucky with a good spot.

The place wasn’t busy at all. I had to wait maybe 10 seconds for a pen to fill out my Voter certificate (forgot what it’s actually called,) then maybe another 5 seconds for a booth to be available. I got one of the old-school, wobbly plastic booths that provides little to no privacy. Being 6′6″, a quick glance to my right or left told me everything I didn’t want to know about the voting preferences of my local boonie-ans (I promise I didn’t actually read anything though.)

My ballot was the type where you fill in the bubbles with an ink pen, which really made me feel like I was taking a test. I even didn’t know the answer to most questions, further connecting the experiences (U-M Regent? Why are we expected to vote on that?)

After carefully making sure I voted for the right guy in the Presidential election — don’t want to make a mistake after all this time — I walked over and fed my ballot into the little grey box. It could have been a paper shredder for all I know. How does my vote get from that box all the way to CNN on my TV? Just one of the mysteries of the world, I guess.

I walked out of there expecting more. I felt very underwhelmed by the whole thing. It felt like I was voting for township supervisor, not for the biggest, most important office in the land. No fanfare, no excitement, not even a damn “I Voted” sticker. I really wanted that sticker.

One of the main arguments against Barack Obama for President is that McCain has more experience, or rather, Obama does not have enough experience.

My favorite rebuttal against that is this: Look where experience has gotten us so far.

My question to you is does this work? My (admittedly naive) view on it is that the government has been filled with old, white men for so long that we need an injection of youth with a background that is a little farther off the norm of a privileged upbringing (not that Obama was not privilaged, but perhaps less so.) Maybe McCain is a “maverick” (def. One that refuses to abide by the dictates of or resists adherence to a group; a dissenter – dictionary.com) but on (my personal most significant) issues like the war, abortion (repeal Roe v. Wade? is that considered maverick?), gay rights, stem cell research and health care, McCain seems right in line with the rest of the old, white guys.

I attended the much ballyhooed Barack Obama campaign rally in Grand Rapids, MI today. It was an interesting experience, having only been at one before: Bob Dole for President ‘96. I was 16 then and only attended as part of my high school’s marching band.

This was pretty cool, seeing as that Obama and Sen. John Edwards picked Grand Rapids to announce their new alliance. Edwards endorsed Obama in an encouraging speech that praised Hillary Clinton and called for “One America.”

The crowd absolutely ate everything up, which was expected. We were pretty far away, but I kind of liked that as I was able to survey the crowd. I’m more interested in people’s reactions to things thatn the people themselves a lot of the time.

Obama himself hit us with his standard stump speech. This was only interrupted once when someone in front of him fainted in the crowd, and he had to call the EMTs over. He even tossed them a bottle of water as the crowd applauded the hero of America and collapsed Obamans everywhere.

It’s pretty exciting to see people of all shapes and colors so adamant about showing their support and being so passionate about politics. Granted this is all a little more sensational than your standard, run-of-the-mill politics, but that’s probably a good thing.

This is not an endorsement of Barack Obama. Have I already done that? I can’t remember. Anyways, I’m saving my endorsement of whichever candidate (not McCain, that’s for sure) for later. Maybe they’ll call me up and have me fly into Atlanta to announce it or something.