Finding the repeated Obama-JFK comparisons tiresome, I started thinking about other interesting historical comparisons.  There's the McCain-Obama comparison to the fictional Vinick-Santos election, but comparing a real election to a Hollywood-imagined one is especially silly.

How about comparing John McCain to Bob Dole in 1996?  Consider these facts about Dole:

• He is a war hero who suffered serious, permanent injuries during his military service.
• He lost the nomination to George Bush (41) eight years before winning it.
• He was a long-time Republican senator known for reaching across the aisle to pass legislation.
• He was in his 70's when he won the nomination.
• He had to fend off serious challenges from the right to win the nomination, and his electoral loss was blamed in part by failure to inspire sufficient turnout among Christian conservative voters.
• He divorced his first wife and not long after married a significantly younger and more glamorous woman.

About a year ago I predicted that I'd have an HDTV system in 2007 and specifically that I'd watch Super Bowl XLII in high-def.  I didn't quite make it, but I am finally getting close.

For most people this would be as simple as buying a high-def television and plugging in a cable TV feed via coax.  But for me it is not, and not only because I need to agonize for months about which specific TV to buy.  The key is that I've become dependent on DVR functionality, and forced to choose between DVR and SD or non-DVR and HD, I opt without hesitation for the former.  Not only that, but I want a DVR head unit that isn't noisy when it's not in use (most have a hard disk fan that runs 24x7).  I also have a strong preference for a server-based recording system (as opposed to each unit recording separately) and don't want to deal with a satellite dish-based system.

With all of these constraints, the plan worked out roughly as follows:

1. Start with a Windows Media Center PC and an Xbox 360 (to serve as the Media Center Extender).
2. Upgrade the home network equipment to Windows Vista-compatible hardware.
3. Upgrade the Media Center PC to Vista Ultimate.
4. Install a Vista-compatible OCUR HD tuner card in the Media Center PC.
5. Get a CableCARD for the tuner from my cable provider.
6. Buy an HDTV and connect it to the Xbox 360.

As is turns out, the big flaw in this plan is that, even though I had deliberately bought a Vista-ready PC in late 2006 to prepare for this, OCUR is supported only on PCs that are "Windows Vista Digital Cable compatible".  This designation requires special rights-management support on the motherboard, so I'd have to buy a fairly expensive PC to support this, even though I have a nearly new PC bought expressly for this purpose.  On principle alone I don't want to do this.

Another factor is that I'm now running Windows Home Server on my old home computer and have been very satisfied by it.  I've also had occasional annoyances with my Media Center PC, most of which revolve around the need to restart my computer while a program is recording or being watched.  Put these two together and conclude that I want to have one server computer that runs 24x7, has loads of disk space and the network bandwidth to serve up its content, and almost never needs to be restarted due to application issues.  So barring unforeseen circumstances I'd rather wait until there's a Home Server product that can also record and share TV programs and then invest in one new computer to do both.

So for now I need a plan B.  That plan is now based on a product called HDHomeRun, which will enable me to record unencrypted HD broadcasts (QAM) on my Media Center PC.  The new plan is:

1. Start with a Windows Media Center PC and an Xbox 360 (to serve as the Media Center Extender).
2. Upgrade the home network equipment to Windows Vista-compatible hardware.
3. Upgrade the Media Center PC to Vista Ultimate.
4. Buy an HDTV with a QAM tuner and confirm that my cable provider transmits unencrypted HD signals for at least the local TV channels.
5. Buy and install an HDHomeRun.

Step 1 was completed in 2006. Step 2 was completed last summer.  Step 4 was completed last weekend.  I've been putting off step 3 for months but may get a chance to do it this weekend.  I don't have a specific schedule for step 5 but it's a safe bet it will happen before next football season starts.

For the first time since 1992, I attended my local Democratic Party presidential caucus on Saturday.  I wasn't planning to attend, due to a conflict with ski lessons, but Snoqualmie Pass cooperated by closing due to heavy snow and my lesson was postponed. 

[That said, I much prefer a primary system as more inclusive, which adds personal irritation to the absurdity that is the February 19th Democratic primary whose results will be ignored.  I may vote anyway simply as a demonstration.]

I went to the caucus torn between the two front-runners, hoping that somebody there would say something that would make something click in one way or the other.  To my mind, either of the two are far superior to the alternatives on the issues that I think are important (foremost, appointments to the federal judiciary), so I'd be happy with either one.  That tends to lead me to focus on crystal ball issues like ability to get elected or to advance one's agenda once elected, but I prefer not to make decisions based on those simply because at this point they're too hard to predict with any accuracy (witness John Kerry in 2004).  On the substantive issues, I was really digging around the margins.  For example, I think Clinton has a better health care plan than Obama.

I'm annoyed by the cult of personality that appears to be surrounding Obama.  All of the comparisons to JFK are perhaps too apt, given that the JFK myth -- most notably, "Camelot" -- did not appear until he was no longer President.  For what it's worth JFK didn't get picked in his first chance to be on a national ticket, as VP in 1956.  I'm more annoyed by the implied threat from Obama supporters that they'll stay home if Clinton wins the nomination, given that the two are so close on the issues; I've not witnessed the same attitude in the opposite direction from Clinton supporters.

But when all was said and done, I thought about the Clintons' association with the DLC, and how I prefer "the Democratic wing of the Democratic party," as Howard Dean famously put it.  And I thought about Clinton's behavior on the Iraq war resolution.  Not so much how she voted on it, but how she has talked about the vote since.  It sounds more like trying to cover her bases than to stand for a principle or even advance an effective pragmatism.  So in the end I voted for Obama.