I've been registered as a member of three political parties at various times.

I change registration for various reasons and am currently registered as a Democrat. That means I have to attend the party's caucus for my district tomorrow night. Ick, what a waste of time.

Still, that means I need to make a decision about whom to support for the presidential nomination. In my district the State House and State Senate seats are held by incumbents who are so safe, they frequently run unopposed (this is why I refer to the Democratic Party's nominating process as "the politburo") and our Representative to the Congress is only slightly less safe--apparently, some districts in my city have actual Republicans...

As of this writing, the Democratic candidates present a difficult choice. Neither is my first--or even second--choice. Those awards went to Gov. Bill Richardson and Sen. John Edwards! While it's clear that the inspiring Sen. Obama is the kind of guy who might offer a chance to stop repeating the cycle of personal destruction and ugly partisan battles that Washington offers, I worry he lacks the right expertise and organization to effectively govern. I'm also fed up with his continuous claims that he was right about opposing the invasion of Iraq (thank you sir, you were right that one time). His résumé in the Illinois state legislature is underwhelming, in my view, and he's dead wrong when he claims Social Security reform is the most important government and economic reform issue.

Sen. Clinton is dead right that health care is the key issue of government and economic reform. I've been reading a lot of New York Times columnist Paul Krugman on this subject--he's an economics professor--and he reports projections that, by the time Social Security is even the slightest bit of a problem, health care costs will swallow 20% of the United States economy. His column today illustrates a key reason why I am seriously leaning toward Sen. Clinton. Plus, she's not clueless about how to govern and is married to a brilliant political advisor. Still, do I really want four or eight more years of Whitewater and "who killed Vince Foster"? Will her husband know his place and keep to it? And can I tolerate her practice of carefully calibrating her positions on every issue? Sure, you can see it as politics as usual (you know, compromising), but there's a point where it's just calculating and spineless.

I swear, I may just insist on supporting Sen. Edwards anyway. Can I do that?

CDs listened to today:

• Gyorgy Ligeti: Musica Ricercata
• Fats Navarro: The Fats Navarro Story, disk 4
• Ingram Marshall: Hymnodic Delays
• Claudio Monteverdi: Il Terzo Libro Dei Madrigali
• The Posies: Dear 23
• Kenny Wheeler: Music For Large And Small Ensembles