Dan Mac Alpine: Tangled up in blue over vote

Thanks to our neighbors to the north who stubbornly hang on to their "first-in-the-nation primary" and a quirk in the Electoral College, I've been paying close attention to all the recent political coverage spilling onto our TV screens and newspapers.

Usually, the Massachusetts primary - Feb. 5 this year - is too late to matter and come the general election candidates totally ignore us because, as our former governor pointed out, we are the "bluest state in the union."

Why spend precious time, resources and money in a state that's already going to vote Democratic no matter what?

But this time it's a little different.

With three viable candidates on the Democratic side and at least that many on the Republican ticket, I'm watching political ads, going to Web sites and reading news stories, because this time my vote might, you know, actually matter.

This leaves me with four choices: John McCain, for whom I've voted in the past, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards.

Much as I like McCain's integrity and independence, any candidate who wins the Republican nomination will have to bow to the Christian right and pledge to disavow evolution, the Big Bang, stem-cell research and swear the earth is only about 4,000 years old.

Look at Mitt, man-of-many-faces, Romney.

When he wanted to be governor of Massachusetts he pledged to keep abortion safe and legal.

When he ran for the Senate in Massachusetts he said he would be a bigger friend to the gay community than his opponent, Ed Kennedy.

Why Mitt runs for things in Massachusetts when he's from Michigan is beyond me. Maybe it's the "M" state thing. He just gets confused.

Then Mitt wanted to win the Republican nomination for president and - whoa - suddenly decided safe, legal abortion wasn't such a good idea after all, so he began spouting terms like "Hillarycare" and ran away from the gay community faster than an Olympic sprinter on steroids.

Then he lost in Iowa and suddenly became the guy who could "work across the aisle" because he'd been elected governor in that hideously blue state of Massachusetts and he started touting the Massachusetts healthcare plan, conveniently omitting the fact he vetoed a key component of the plan.

I might have voted for Mitt - if I could have only figured out which Mitt was running.

So that leaves the Democrats.