Ever heard of Jim Cooper's health plan? Back in 1993, it was one that would have provided a lot of relief to a lot of Americans and had broad bipartisan support in the House and Senate. Hillary torpedoed it and tried to ruin Cooper for spite.

Read the story of how Hillary Clinton killed a health care reform bill. I've long disliked her because she represents the worst of the Democratic party... the limousine liberalism, the power brokering, the backroom deals... But then, in this story, she shows she is as petty, vindictive, and capable of tunnel vision as Bush/Cheney ever were.

It's not a question of her sex or her politics for me. It's a question of her integrity. After reading stories like this and watching the Clinton attack machine go after Obama, I just cannot support Hillary. The politics of division, the politics of pettiness, the politics of revenge... I've been waiting 8 years to get that OUT of the white house.

I just can't do it. Hillary is Dick Cheney in heels. If she wins the Democratic nomination, I'll back Ron Paul as an independent or take a new look at McCain. I can vote for a woman, but I can't vote for Hillary.

In navigating all the election results, the delegate tallies depend on who you ask. According to CNN, the count is 1148 for Clinton and 1121 for Obama. According to the Associated Press it's 1136 for Clinton to 1108 for Obama. According to MSNBC, it's 943 for Obama and 895 for Clinton. According to ABC News, it's 1127 for Clinton to 1110 for Obama. And according to that bastion of reliability, Fox News, it's 1127 for Clinton to 1093 for Obama, which is the AP count minus the 24 delegates just awarded in Maine.

The problem is that except for maybe the MSNBC count, all of them are trying to count superdelegates. These are party officials, senators and congresspeople who act as a check against a bunch of college students saddling the party with another George McGovern. If there's no clear winner from the popular vote, these 796 people get to weigh in and tip the scales toward one candidate or another. But here's the thing, no matter who they say they're supporting now, they can change their mind at any time.

According to CNN, if you forget about superdelegates, Obama is leading Hillary 986 to 924. And while varying other counts aren't quite as high for either side, no one disputes that Obama is leading in delegates awarded by popular vote. It's not until you start counting delegates awarded by backroom deals, personal loyalties, and favors owed does Hillary jump ahead. But all of those news sources report the count including the superdelegates and then either disclaim that it includes superdelagates without breaking it out, or prints the breakdown in much smaller type than the tallies.

So, if you go to CNN, ABC News, Fox News, or the Associated Press, the first thing you see is that Hillary is leading by anywhere from 17 to 34 delegates. You have to look deeper to maybe see that Obama is leading the number of electorally committed delegates by between 48 and 62 while the numbers giving Hillary the lead are merely based on an opinion poll that could shift in the blink of an eye.

It's irresponsible and perhaps even biased for major news outlets to be reporting the polling numbers of superdelegates as if they were real, committed delegates. It's the only way Hillary has the lead, and any or all of those delegates could change their mind the next time they're polled. Some could leave Obama for Hillary, some could leave Hillary for Obama, and who they're really going to support is not guaranteed until they officially declare themselves at the convention.

So I'd like to ask the major news outlets to stop reporting super delegates as part of the totals. It's misleading and inaccurate since many of these delegates can and possibly will switch their allegiances before the convention.

Well, despite my grumblings, Super Tuesday didn't decide a clear front-runner in the Democratic race, meaning that I could go caucus this weekend, make my voice heard, and it would matter. Or so I thought.

I figured I didn't want to get to the caucus location too early, because I was going to have to take my almost-three-year-old and keep him entertained. So we left the house about noon, stopped at a McDonalds on the way to the caucus, had lunch, and made sure to get back on the road by 12:40, giving us 20 minutes to drive the last couple of miles, get parked, and sign in.

When I got to the light for Harbour Pointe Blvd. (we were caucusing at Kamiak High School), the backup in the left turn lane was big enough it took two green arrows before I got to make my turn. And by the middle school (there's a series of schools along the road), traffic was already backed up and that was a mile or more down the road from the high school. I tried to park at the elementary school a couple of blocks away, but it was full up, and by the time I got to the high school, traffic was a nightmare, people were flooding toward the high school in all directions on foot, and the traffic coming from the other direction was backed up for hundreds of yards.

Every church and school parking lot I passed was full, cars lined the side streets, by the time it seemed to thin out enough that I was confident I might find a parking space, I was a mile or more past the high school, it was 8 minutes to 1 p.m. (the official start time), and I was going to have to try to hoof it with a three-year-old. The absolute earliest I'd be getting to that door would be 1:15 or 1:20.

The odds of me getting signed in before it was too late were low, and even if I did, I was probably going to have a very annoyed kid to contend with as I navigated through a huge crowd. I weighed the odds against the potential benefit and decided to keep on along Harbour Pointe until it dumped out at the Mukilteo Speedway and just go home.

So, while I was gratified that my state Democratic party's decision not to caucus or vote on or before Super Tuesday didn't make my vote worthless, I was very unhappy that their stupid caucus system made my vote and my wife's vote worthless because they made it so damn hard to vote.

My wife had to work on Saturday and couldn't attend, and surrogates were only allowed in case of religious observance (a Saturday caucus violates the Sabbath), military service, or disability. And I couldn't attend because having my son with me meant a mile plus walk/jog in the cold, wet, Washington weather wasn't an option. If I'd been warned that large crowds would make parking difficult and I should arrive at noon or earlier, the story might have been different, but in the communications I saw from Obama and the party, that warning didn't appear.

What a clusterf*ck. I am so unhappy and disillusioned with the Washington State Democratic Party, I'm seriously re-considering whether I want to continue being a Democrat. A lot of people in service industry jobs, primarily the poor and minorities, often have to work on Saturday, and that excludes them from caucusing. People with small children, the disabled, and the elderly may find it difficult to get out to the caucus.

With a primary, you can show up at a polling place within a 10-12 hour time frame, or you can request an absentee ballot and vote by mail. In some counties, they've gone to an entirely vote-by-mail system. It allows people who want to participate to do so and does not alienate or disenfranchise voters.

Now, my first thought was that this whole process creates an unconstitutional barrier to voting and I should sue. But since this is a vote to choose a candidate and not to elect someone to office, it seems my voting rights are not technically violated by the party's stupid, exclusionary rules. Still it does mean one thing: while I will donate to Obama's campaign as we head into the convention, and I'll donate more to it if he secures the nomination, the party itself will be told to suck my ass if it wants any money. While I like Obama, I'm pretty disillusioned with my state's incarnation of the party he represents.