You know, I never thought I would be induced to vote against McCain for the senate race this fall. He is without a doubt my favorite republican. And it just makes too much sense to keep him in Congress, as a check for the republicans, to keep them honest. Plus we come down on the same side of a surprising number of issues, he's my frelling hero for the McCain-Leiberman Climate Stewardship Act, and regularly catches lots of heat for breaking with the republican party line.

But that was all before I met Stu Starky, democratic candidate for senator (in Arizona).

Stu spoke last night at the local Democracy for America meetup. And although when he started talking I was thinking to myself, no matter how much I love you, I'm still voting for McCain, within a very short time that had changed to he's right, there are an awful lot of reasons to vote against McCain and even to you know, this guy could actually win. By the end of his speech I was drawing little hearts around his webpage address that I'd written on a piece of scratch paper, like some demented twelve-year-old.

What's my point? I don't know that I have one. Other than the more involved I get in politics, the more meetings I go to and the more petitions I circulate, the less disempowered I feel. The more I believe that we have a real shot at taking our country back this fall. It's an amazing feeling.