Today marked a couple of firsts for me, but I'll start with the "first" that occurred this evening. I went out and participated in the Iowa Caucuses. Since I was a registered independent, I spent quite a bit of time over the last few months listening to all of the candidates, from both parties, deciding who I thought would be best to lead our country, who "spoke" to me the most, who addressed the issues that I felt were most important.

For me, it was pretty simple. None of the Republican candidates really impress me, although Huckabee's honesty is beyond refreshing. But, I found myself focusing on the Democrats. Since I wanted to support someone that I felt had a good chance of winning, that realistically left three folks:

• Edwards has always struck me as being friendly and genuine, but more importantly, the smooth-talking, good-ole-boy from the south that would always say the right things, smile at the right times, and wink the right way to get what he wanted. No thanks.

• Hillary's a tough nut to crack. I personally have no bad feelings towards her, but I know a lot of folks that do, for reasons unknown to me. Again, going back to electability, Clinton scares me. There's just too many folks out there that I think would be motivated to vote against her just to keep the Clintons out of office.

  At the same time, she's also been talking a lot about fighting for the presidency, which also concerns me. This country has been quite divided over the last 7 years, something I'd love to see end. In my opinion, a second Clinton presidency would only split us further. So, that leaves...

• Barack Obama. Oprah's endorsement really churned my stomach. Most guys, including me, hate Oprah. That didn't help. But, given the other options, Obama is, in my opinion, the best candidate out there. Sure, he has the unfortunate luck of having a pair of names similar to that of a couple of different madmen. He's also had a slew of inaccurate rumors about him being a Muslim. Even if he was, so what? Even if the folks that attacked us on 9/11 happened to be of the Muslim faith, they were exercising a very whacked-out interpretation of it. For me, that's no reason to not trust a Muslim. That's a moot point anyway; Obama is a Christian.

  Obama has very little experience, something I'll willingly admit. However, that's not as important to me as the feel I get from him. Clinton and Edwards both seem like their party is far more important than the betterment of this country. I get quite the opposite impression from Obama. He genuinely seems very concerned about the well-being of the average family in this country, about our future, and seems to have a very level head with an open mind. Sure, appearances can be deceiving, but what else can you go by? You can malform a voting record into any terrible reality you choose. Quotes can be taken unflatteringly out of context.

  So, Obama was my guy for my first caucus. For the record, I had similar uneasy feelings about Bush as I had this year with Clinton and Edwards. My gut served me well the last two times I voted for president, so I'm trusting it again.

The other first? It's a girl. It should be interesting to see who notices this, if anyone.

"But, wait a minute," said the listener, "She'll have to dress with the boys and shower with them too. Won't she?"

"Sure," replied the man.

"Well, won't they find out?"

The man shrugged. "But who'll tell?"