I don’t often engage in politics here, not directly; I have a whole other Web space for that, but it’s under a pseudonym and it’s a shared space, so I think that writing it here offers some level of clarity. This is me talkin’. Not Brady Bonk.

Now, if you know me, you know I won’t be voting for any Republicans any time soon. So that makes my process easier, especially since the Democratic field has been thinned to three now. I have certainly considered, briefly, the possibility of the fellow from Maryland; he seems like a fine candidate and should be on the short list for running mate, but there’s a gravitas deficit there somehow. No, I think for me as well as for many in my party, it comes down to Bernie v. Hillary.

And most of the folks I know are batting for Bernie. As a regular listener of The Thom Hartmann Program, I can understand why. Bernie Sanders is a fierce, effective, outspoken advocate for vital progressive issues, most specifically correcting America’s insane trade policies, expanding the availability of health care, ceasing insane and never-ending wars, investing solidly in education, getting tough with Wall Street, et-chetera. There is no doubt that Bernie Sanders is correct on a buncha issues and that he’s an effective advocate for them. I’m a fan of his. Big-time.

That doesn’t mean he’s convinced me he’s the best person to run for this office.

In 2008, I was a rabid Obama supporter and in fact a fairly early adopter (I crafted my endorsement of Mr. Obama in February 2008). My logic on this was fairly straightforward: We had just got our asses handed to us running a candidate from the Senate who had voted for the Joint Resolution to Authorize the Use of United States Armed Forces Against Iraq. Why, when Iraq was still a hotly contested political issue, why would we do that again?

Now, I can’t tell you the Hillary wouldn’t have won, necessarily. But I can tell you that my political calculus made sense, and that the candidate we nominated has since been one of the most electorally successful people to run for the office in recent history. I know, to paraphrase the man himself, because he won both of them.

He also cleared that political trap for Mrs. Clinton. Iraq is a hot political issue no longer. Her vote, though still unfortunate, is no longer a political liability. And, she has admitted to the error and has apologized. Not that she doesn’t have new political baggage, of course. With Clintons, there’s always baggage. Always. But not like the Iraq vote at that moment in time. Nothing like that, nosiree.

So, let’s do one of those list things that the kids are all reading on the Internet these days. We’ll start with

1. Hillary Clinton is the most qualified candidate for the office, not just among her Democratic counterparts, not just among the whole bag of candidates this year, but than has ever run, certainly in my lifetime. In 2008, when people would level the charge that Barack Obama was not “experienced” enough and that Hillary Clinton had all this “experience” brimming out every pore of her body, I cried bullshit, and I was right. The candidates’ resumes, when objectively compared, were actually quite equivalent, considering that aside from her Senate experience at the time, Mrs. Clinton had never served in elected office.

Since then, though, she’s been kinda busy.

As Secretary of State:

• Hillary Clinton was the last person to get representatives from Israel and Palestine in the same room together.
• She was primarily responsible for creating the sanctions that brought Iran to the table.
• She successfully led an effort to restore the reputation of the United States worldwide after the bufoonery of the Bush years.
• She helped secure ratification of the START treaty.
• She influenced President Obama in the decision to end Osama bin Laden.

Was Hillary Clinton’s record at State perfect? No. I have found it to be a bit of a mixed bag. She leaned strongly toward the NATO effort in Libya, which like or not ended disastrously, and she wanted the United States to intervene more strongly in Syria, on which she was thankfully demured.

The best analysis I can find of Mrs. Clinton’s tenure at Foggy Bottom are here, in a piece by Walter Russell Mead. He believes it to have been a fairly mixed result.

Regardless, she is the only Democrat running who has served in such a global capacity. In terms of international issues, Hillary Clinton will be crafting and executing policy where Bernie and Martin will be trying to figure out which fork to use.

2. The next Democratic President needs to be able to go nose to nose with Republican intransigence and needs to be able to whip its ass. In my circle, we have a joke, based on a surreal line from the long-running animated show “The Simpsons.” It is: “I’m not not licking Republicans.”

President Obama has been a vastly effective executive. But only recently has he seemed to come to the realization that the political opposition is nothing but that: Opposition. He has operated much of his administration on the mistaken notion that he would be able to achieve consensus with his political frenemies. This mistaken notion has sometimes led to horrifying disaster, such as his seeming willingness to accept Chained CPI as a policy matter, or his extension of the Bush tax cuts, which he has promised to allow to sunset.

I am a big fan of the Obama years, but we need a cleanup batter now, someone with no illusions about bi-partisan warm fuzzies, somebody who will kick ass and who will take names. If only there were some instance I could point to in order to show that Hillary Clinton is the person who can fulfill this requirement, like, say, 11 hours of testimony in front of the House Benghazi committee in October 2015.

Or, say, her often-pilloried but as it turns out TOTALLY ACCURATE coining of the term “vast right-wing conspiracy” in 1998.

Remember, Obama came to office with a vision of “…one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America…”

Mrs. Clinton won’t come to the office quite nearly as wide-eyed. And she has concretely shown that she is uniquely suited to manage, disorient, and destroy the Republicans’ obstructionist agenda.

3. Nothing would piss off conservatives more than another Clinton administration. Besides maybe another black guy, of course, but that ship has sailed. No, I have witnessed first-hand the burgeoning spiky forehead vein that is created when a “conservative”-minded person refers to a Clinton who is occupying the White House. It cannot be eclipsed by any other visceral experience for a “conservative.” Nothing would cause their eyeballs to boil in blood more readily than at least four more years of somebody named “Clinton” in the Oval. Such a thing makes me giggle like a little girl.

4. Houston, June 2015. One of the first campaign events of Hillary 2016 was a stunning speech given at Texas Southern University, deep in Rick Perry country, in which she declared the really weird idea that Americans should be allowed to vote. In fact, she called for what may ostensibly seem like a radical idea: Universal voting registration for every American adult. You can watch the speech here (you can skip to about 18 minutes to get through all the grip-and-grin bullshit). It is a seminal speech and an impressive campaign kick-off.

5. The Planned Parenthood endorsement. Yes, it’s that important. As an organization, as an issue, as an advocacy group, the Planned Parenthood endorsement is that incredibly important. The political fire PP has taken of late makes its endorsement ring that much more clearly. They cite her stances on family planning, on abortion, and on the vital nature of Planned Parenthood itself and concluded they had to endorse for the first time ever. I for one am not surprised they picked the one with the uterus. Not sure why other folks are. But their endorsement carries more weight in my opinion than any others.

Trust women.

6. Because My Grandma asked me to. My 92-year-old Grandma was a Clinton supporter in 2008 but gladly came around to support Barack Obama despite her misgivings, and she’s become an ardent Obama supporter since. She makes a strong case for Hillary in 2012 as well, and this year, I am right with her.

I mean, if I don’t include among my reasons that I would like for my Grandma to see a woman in the Oval Office in her lifetime, I’d be lying. I would really like that. So yes. That is one of my reasons.

7. You Bernie PUMAs are really pissing me off. It’s odd that the PUMAs are in the Bernie camp this year, and they’re just as annoying as they were in Hillary’s camp in 2008. Generally, they are saying they will write Bernie in if he doesn’t get the nod, which is a terribly destructive stance that I find horrifying. You can believe that if Mr. Sanders garners the nomination, I will be first in line to cast my vote for him in November, but for some reason among Bernie boosters, that courtesy does not extend in the other direction. And specifically, I’ve seen these people source Breitbart hit pieces on Hillary Clinton and go SEE? SEE? SEE? It’s ridiculous. Mainly, though, this threat to write him if Hillary is the candidate? Fine. Don’t come crawling to me when President Trump rounds up all the brown people and frog-marches your ass to church.

8. Bernie Sanders is not a Jedi Knight. I’m not sure what Bernie boosters think he will be able to accomplish in office that Mrs. Clinton won’t. He will still face an obstructionist legislative body unless we can turn some results around there. He will still face the same inevitable political pressure every President faces from the inside. He will still be bound by law and precedent. As powerful as the Presidency is, it still has its limits and its powerful challenges. Bernie boosters act like the man has a magic wand he’ll wave at 1 p.m. January 20 and then peace and love and free vasectomies for everyone. SO besotted are they of this notion that they’re willing to mount a write-in effort and derail a nominee’s chances?

Yep. I’m Team Hillary ATW now. Do yer wurst. If she can take it, I sure can.