Another landslide for Obama. 65%-32%. Democrats abroad only has 22 delegates, but this victory is significant  because these Americans  have to face every day the impact of 8 years of the Bush administration and his disasterous war on the world's opinion of us.  These ex-pats are also best suited to determine which of these candidates is more credible in world opinion, an assessment that's been echoed emphatically in all the international papers I've seen.

OK, maybe not. But I wrote my congressman, Lloyd Doggett, a few weeks ago and asked him to publicly endorse Obama.  I knew at least he would probably not be for Hillary because he lead a very valiant but heartbreaking effort in the House to stop the AUMF in 2002 and has spoken out recently against saber rattling on Iran. I didn't even get a response from him, truthfully. But today it's up on the Obama website:

Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) Endorses Obama for President

U.S. Congressman Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) today endorsed Senator Barack Obama for President of the United States. 

“When he stands up, all the world will know that America really has changed, that the disastrous policies of the last eight years have ended,” said Congressman Doggett, a superdelegate to the Democratic National Convention. “That is why today, I am announcing my vote for and endorsement of Barack Obama.”

“My decision is not based on what is wrong with another candidate, but what is right with him.”

“Today, I am adding one more delegate vote to Senator Obama's total, and  I am adding my every effort to help win the support he needs among our neighbors here in Central Texas, win the nomination nationwide, and win the general election in November, so that in 334 days, President Obama can take the helm and set the new course that this country so needs.”

If you don't know who Lloyd Doggett is, he's the congressman who has represented Austin for 14 years. He is also the primary target of that famed Texas gerrymandering--which made it all the way to the Supreme Court, and which will one day (I hope) land Tom Delay in jail. They gerrymandered Lloyd's district into a piece of spagetti going down to the Rio Grande and he still won in a landslide. (The supreme court made them fix his district since then.) In answer to a question on another thread about poor Kirk Watson's public humiliation: There are good politicians in Texas. Lloyd Doggett is one of them.

I live in Austin.  This evening I was talking to my mother on the phone about the election and about which way Texas would go.  She and my 77 year old father caucused for Obama in Colorado.  We started talking, as we often do, about the late-great Molly Ivins, a Texas icon and one of my mother's and my shared heroines. Molly lost her battle with breast cancer this last year and her wit and clarity are dearly missed. 

I said, "I bet Molly would have choice words for Hillary."  I had no doubt what side Molly would be on. Like Obama  she was a voice of sanity on Iraq from the beginning. And that gave me the incentive to google Molly Ivins and Clinton.  This is the first article that popped up.  It was written in January 2006, a year before Hillary or Obama had officially announced. 

It is titled, "I will not support Hillary Clinton for president"

AUSTIN, Texas --- I'd like to make it clear to the people who run the Democratic Party that I will not support Hillary Clinton for president.

Enough. Enough triangulation, calculation and equivocation. Enough clever straddling, enough not offending anyone This is not a Dick Morris election. Sen. Clinton is apparently incapable of taking a clear stand on the war in Iraq, and that alone is enough to disqualify her. Her failure to speak out on Terri Schiavo, not to mention that gross pandering on flag-burning, are just contemptible little dodges.

The recent death of Gene McCarthy reminded me of a lesson I spent a long, long time unlearning, so now I have to re-learn it. It's about political courage and heroes, and when a country is desperate for leadership. There are times when regular politics will not do, and this is one of those times. There are times a country is so tired of bull that only the truth can provide relief.

If no one in conventional-wisdom politics has the courage to speak up and say what needs to be said, then you go out and find some obscure junior senator from Minnesota with the guts to do it. In 1968, Gene McCarthy was the little boy who said out loud, "Look, the emperor isn't wearing any clothes." Bobby Kennedy -- rough, tough Bobby Kennedy -- didn't do it. Just this quiet man trained by Benedictines who liked to quote poetry.

This is my new battle cry, "Remember Molly Ivins and don't forget to thank Hillary for Iraq March 4th!" 

* (Actually, I think Molly Ivins may have been an athiest, but that's beside the point).