Upon arriving at my dad's house yesterday, my dad, the Republican, greeted me with gloats about how the polls between Clark and Dean were tightening in New Hampshire. My dad had expressed preference for Clark over Bush (but not Dean over Bush) before, but I was kind of floored by his newfound enthusiasm for a Democrat. Hell, I was floored by his enthusiasm for any politician.

He tried to get in a fight with me over the Dean/Clark party infighting. I didn't bite, though, because I'm not anti-Clark, I just happen to like Dean a bit more. Instead I joshed him a little bit about getting a bumper sticker for his car. At first he abhorred the idea. I told him, though, that if he's that enthusiastic about someone, no matter who it is, he should get involved. He said he might do it. I'm still waiting to hear from Lindsay, who is currently working for Clark in New Hampshire, about getting him a bumper sticker.

Next he was on to praising Clark's tax plan, which is really awesome by the way. I couldn't believe that my long-time Republican dad was giving praise to one of the most progressive tax plans ever. Maybe he's finally realizing that he, like the vast majority of the nation, should be voting Democratic.

    "We have got to stop having our elections in the South based on race, guns, God and gays."

    - Howard Dean

My dad then joked about changing his party affiliation to Democratic so that he can vote in the CA Dem primary (he really likes the idea of "cancelling out" my vote). So today I steered him to the CA Secretary of State's website to change his registration and he did. It's not complete, though. He still has to sign the form they send him and mail it in.

More on that story as it unfolds.