Election Fatigue

It could happen to you, it could happen to me, it could happen to everyone eventually... But seriously. I never thought it would happen to me. I was really, really excited about this election. It was close, it was engaging... everything I could want our of an election. I loved it. It had a good guy (Obama), a bad girl (Hillary), a grumpy old man (Mc Cain), a high priest (Huckabee) and a born again Nazi (John Mc Cain). It was fun. I love our system and even with these absurdly early primaries making the season more absuder (legal term) it seemed like it would all be good.

I think I started to tire when I found out that John Mc Cain was a left leaning, pinko, gay marriage espousing, pro abortion, anti-life, probably gay himself, killer of small children, puppy maiming BASTARD! I had no idea. I thought he was just a smart but grumpy old man who had served his country well, been a prisoner of war, devoted himself to public service, refused the pork barrel earmarks and (in earlier elections) stood up to hate and intolerance. So it was distracting when my favorite comfort woman to the Nazi’s... Anne Coulter set me straight on John Mc Cain. I think that started to make me tired.
And then there was Super Tuesday. I was really thinking I would get some closure on the Obama/Clinton thing at Super Tuesday but... instead I get uncertainty and fear that we will go to the convention without being united. That there will be legal battles over the seating of the Florida and Michigan delegates where Hillary won and Barack didn’t campaign. That there will be a convention decided by “Super Delegates” that no one voted for.

Now Romney has quit. That is a good thing because I really hated him (and I know that is irrational) and his rich guy (I put 35 million into my own campaign) pretty haired, I turned around the Olympics and a consulting company so I can run the country, attitude. Now everyone says Mc Cain will pick Huckabee as his VP but I do not see it. I hope he does not grab Johnny Depp before Obama thinks of it. God it is hard on me coming up with all the ideas for these guys.

And when I started to think about all that I really just became tired of the whole thing. I listened to all the analysts on Wednesday puffing and talking and... I just got tired. The local NPR station started it’s Valentine’s pledge drive this morning and I was grateful for the break in commentating. I think that I am afraid for the future and that makes me feel weak and sad. I do not have a lot of faith that anyone can save us from a long cold winter in our economy and I have fears of fascism and nationalism and a lot of other ism’s as we start through our Limbaugh and Coulter demagogues to find people to blame. I really am afraid of that so... I am taking a break from political blogging for a while and doing a strategic withdrawal until March or so. Certainly know one can object to that?

SUPER TUESDAY

Soooo... it is hard to write about anything but politics. The South Carolina thing, rather then being treated as a coronation of Obama seems to be seen by the media as only a pre-requisite to his candidacy staying alive. There seems to be some serious question in the medias mind that, after winning States as broad as Iowa and South Carolina, he might still not fair well on Super Tuesday. 1 day to Super Tuesday...yikes. Well, there are a lot of States up for grabs:

Super Tuesday: February 5
Alabama primaries
Alaska caucuses
Am. Samoa caucuses
Arizona primaries
Arkansas primaries
California primaries
Colorado caucuses
Connecticut primaries
Delaware primaries
Georgia primaries
Idaho caucuses
Illinois primaries
Kansas caucuses
Mass. primaries
Minnesota caucuses
Missouri primaries
Montana caucuses
New Jersey primaries
New Mexico primary
New York primaries
North Dakota caucuses Oklahoma primaries
Tennessee primaries
Utah primaries
W. Virginia convention

We are here and no one knows what is going to happen on the Democratic side. It really seems to all come down to California and Hillary is in the lead there. But as in a lot of things with our country California will lead the way and we will see if Obama’s momentum can overtake her machine and her polish. They debated again on Thursday, just the two of them and I was concerned that Obama would just get killed. Instead he held his own but make no mistake, he just held his own. Hillary is smart, well spoken and despite all evidence to the contrary has great instincts. Still, watching her makes me cringe. She cannot communicate without a petulant, smug, superior and yes bitchy, attitude. On the other hand Barack, who I love and will vote for if I get the chance, seems like a scolding parent. Still, he survived in that fight. But will he survive California?
The Republicans are done and they did the right thing. They rejected this flipper Romney in favor of the grumpy old man Mc Cain. And I could vote for him even though I think he is wrong on the war, he is right on a lot of other stuff and as soon as he wins the nomination I think he will move away from all the tax cut, right to life talk. They have dismissed Huckabee but he will live to fight another day. There is no question that he burst from irrelevance to now being the guy who delivers the nomination to Mc Cain. Good for him. Mc Cain will be hard to handle in a general election. He is, as I said, a grumpy old man. There will be a lot of talk about his age but the bottom line is, old people vote. He will be tough in the general election. He will be tough in the general election. Do not discount this guy.

I watched meet the press this morning (what a great show) and was repressed by almost everyone but the Mary Matalin/James Carville thing is particularly depressing because these is just dying that this commie Mc Cain (when did that happen?) is going to win the nomination and Carville cannot believe anyone could be challenging the coronation of his once and future boss. The encouraging thing is that there are people in the middle. There are people open to compromise and the demonization of Mc Cain for being able to reach compromises with the Democrats is ultimately what will get him the nomination and maybe even the White House.

This is a new environment compared to the last 20 years. The Republicans lost me with Newt Gingrich and the beginning of the Orwellian language choices (brilliant) made by the Republican party when they threw “The Contract With America” at us. These were the politics of the 51% which were honed by Karl Rove and left the Democrats confused and standing in the shadows scratching their asses and their heads (different hands). The idea of “your with us or your against us”....”your for no child left behind or you hate kids”... “your for tax cuts or your an anti business commie”... “your for the war or you hate America AND freedom”. We, as a country are sick of this. But that having been said we could lapse into the same thing again.
Be aware Whether you are for Barack, Mc Cain or even Clinton. These are all good people. They all sincerely want what is best for us. Each of them will face an enormous challenge, and unbelievable challenge and they will need our support and our prayers. The people who support the people who we do not support (including my brother and many of my friends) have nothing but but the best intentions for our leaders and the country. It is hope that after we finish with the primaries we can have a healthy discussion about the issues and leadership and remember in the end that we are all Americans and have a lot of work to do.