Texas politics

I'm in Austin. It's nice to be back. But my head is in turmoil so I've been a little distracted and far too introspective.

Happily, my visit to central Texas co-incided with the presidential campaigning in Texas (voting ends here 4th March for the democratic campaign) and I was lucky enough to be able to experience Politics American style up close last night. We went to the Obama rally in Austin.

They do things differently over here. The event was a big-budget, slickly-marketed, smooth talking, preaching-to-the-converted rally whipping up the crowd into a Patriotic, fevered state.
. I was in this crowd, a few hundred yards from the man himself and genuinely impressed.

Although the campaign has a glossy, fake feel in general, this is openly acknowledged - so in fact it is more genuine. Obama is focussing heavily on the "Change" agenda and spoke confidently and unprompted for a good hour on the details of the policies he intends to put in place. They sound pretty far reaching and costly promises he's making - education, healthcare, stopping the war in Iraq and bringing the troops home, a lot of "dollars back in your pocket" good honest messages. If he can actually make half those things really happen within a four-year-term it will be impressive - but i presume they are not just empty promises.

Patriotism works like a dream for politicians here - they just say things like "proud to be an American again" or "I love Austin, Texas" and the crowd goes wild.

Anyway, it seems likely that Obama might just pull off the trick and become the Democratic candidate - it was fascinating to see some of the political machinery in action up close.