It was two minutes that speak volumes about America in this presidential year.

I was at a bar wearing a T-shirt that said: “1-20-09 Bush’s Last Day: The End of an Error.”

I noticed a Republican-looking guy (boy, I am stereotyping with that, but sometimes you can just tell) eyeing me. I looked over and he flicked me off twice.

About one minute later, another guy and his girlfriend were looking at me. This time the guy walked over and gave me a high-five.

Obviously, tensions run high as primary season is underway. And the guy being bashed on my shirt wasn’t even running.

Politics have always divided this nation. People tell you to never talk about it, along with religion (socially awkward as I am, these are two of my favorite conversation topics).

Certainly we are much divided right now, as we were in 2000 and 2004. Is it any worse than in the sixties or in the 1972 election? While health care, the economy and the war are certainly big issues, we were probably most divided in the 1860s when we were talking about owning other human beings.

Still, for political junkies like me (recovering journalist, now a counseling grad student) this is a very exciting and truly important time.

We all know the last eight years never should have happened, but they did. Americans even had a chance to change course in 2004 and did not. I worry there are still many American-idiots out there who will be too ignorant to vote for either the first black or female president.

But in many ways, all of us who are crying for change have already won.

President Bush cannot run again. No one is running on his coattails and no one is seeking his support. The nightmare really is almost over. We are also fortunate that my brother is not getting his way and that Dick Cheney is not running.

The religious right has been marginalized in this election. They are protesting by still supporting Mike Huckabee (and Chuck Norris) and talking about voting for the Democrat over John McCain, essentially because he is not crazy, racist, bigoted or backward enough.

While we disagree on the Iraq War, I could live with a John McCain presidency. I already voted for him actually. I was one of the Democrats who crossed over in the Ohio primary in 2000 to vote for him over Bush. I also told people I would have voted for him over the weak-willed plastic politician I felt my once-beloved Al Gore had become when he ran that year. Gore has since remade himself and I will not even get into what his presence in this campaign could mean.

When there was talk about John Kerry picking McCain as a running mate in 2004, I thought it made political sense. But alas, the maverick McCain was not quite that maverick.

Hey, I almost forgot that McCain made a cameo in “Wedding Crashers” until I watched it again this weekend.

But let me stop short of coronating McCain as a white Barack Obama or male Hillary Clinton. I also sometimes let the “he survived five years in a POW camp” impress me too much.

America needs a lot in this election. Most of all, it needs the much-talked-about change to actually happen. Health care has been kicked around since Bill Clinton first ran. Ohio saw none of the moderate economic growth that happened during Bush’s tenure. We must decide how to proceed in Iraq.

Which candidate can deliver change?

There’s also the vague concept of unity that I applaud Obama for championing. But I am intrigued by something Hillary Clinton said on “60 Minutes” last week: She’s “not for unity for unity’s sake” and that there are serious problems beyond “who’s more inspirational.”

Perhaps ironically, I, right now, support Obama because he is inspirational and the freshest voice. But Clinton raises a good point. Can Obama deliver what he promises, and is what he promises what we really need?

However, I fear Clinton cannot beat McCain. I love the Clintons, but Hillary is saddled with Bill’s legacy of getting freaky with an intern. I also dislike that she became a carpetbagger by running for the Senate in New York. That is enough for almost half the country to hate her.

If you take out Hillary, we have Obama trying to campaign as a black man (in a nation that is not quite as tolerant as we would all like to believe) against a war hero and veteran senator.

It will make for some great entertainment for the next several months, and hopefully lead to some real progress on the tough issues we face.

But I do believe that among these three, we have a chance for some progress.

– Respond to Brandon at [email protected].