You can't play it like it's over (even though it is)
Barack Obama will be our next president.
There, I said it. You have, too, maybe even on your blog or likely just in private conversation. We all know it, McCain's campaign knows it and even the GOP leadership knows it. Colin Powell, Scott McLelland and how many Republican governors past and present have all come out in favor of the Democrat and even today the largest newspaper in ALASKA is endorsing Obama.
With the reports of Mrs. Palin's spending (through the RNC coffers, of course) on clothes, hair and makeup (Bill Maher says Palin's makeup artist is the highest paid person in the campaign) in the last days before our quadrennial ritual, the underdog status of Mr. McCain is assured and he is resorting to smear, fear and dirty tricks. However, he's making so many gaffes and Freudian slips it's just not even funny. 'Senior moment' doesn't begin to cover it. He's regressing to schoolyard name-calling and the more modern evasion tactics of interview questions as a strategy. Add in Mrs. Palin's 'going rogue' on some issues (most notably on gay marriage earlier this week) and I can smell the desperation from here in my red state.
My blue vote won't count for president in the out-of-touch/out-of-date system we call the Electoral College. My vote won't count except that the county I live in will be the only (and I mean ONLY) little piece of blue in the Midwestern Sea of Red. If the EC is to stay in place, then all states should award electoral votes based on representative districts. I think that would be the way to go, but for every vote to truly count it's time to do away with the EC and elect presidents solely on the popular vote.
That would be change I can believe in.
Bill Clinton was my president. I had threatened to volunteer and work for Frank Zappa in '92 if he was a serious candidate, but then he died. Then in the Kansas primary, I voted for Gerry Brown (yeah I was an idealist). But Clinton ended up being my man because he wanted to get America involved. We all knew he was a randy son of a bitch, but he CARED in ways that GOP leadership doesn't and doesn't seem capable of, nor care to. Obama cares, and maybe he cares TOO much, but we need this, America. We need to change the way we do things, from basic public transportation in middling-sized cities across the country to writing Bills into Law. Someone in the Oval Office who gives a damn will make a difference, but if Mr. Obama will lead us into the future he will make MORE than a difference. He has an opportunity to fundamentally affect the future of America and even the world.
It will be dangerous. He will face racist plots for his assassination. The far, far Right will accuse him of being what he is not and will foment fear in ways that we have never seen before. I worry that Mr. Obama will make it through his first term because the forces aligned against John Kennedy were considerable and there is more influence and money in the world now than ever before. There are also more radical thinkers in the world who will incite the poorly educated to riot and dangerous actions, thanks in large part to the GOP history of diminishing educational opportunities in America.
We cannot continue to settle for 50/50 compromise in Washington. That's just not good enough any more in the 21st century. We must demand 100% of our leaders and representatives. In return we must give them 100% in living up to what America needs and not just what will make our lives easier and more convenient. 50/50 isn't good enough any more, it has to be 100/100. We will all have to be strong, we will all have to be on our guard and we will all, every one of us, have to ensure that Barack Obama can be the president we need him to be.
He will be our next president, but for how long and how effectively is up to each of us.
***UPDATED 10/27/08 804 PM: Feds foil skinhead plot to assassinate Obama from Yahoo! News. Jesus aitch Christ. What a fucking world.
There, I said it. You have, too, maybe even on your blog or likely just in private conversation. We all know it, McCain's campaign knows it and even the GOP leadership knows it. Colin Powell, Scott McLelland and how many Republican governors past and present have all come out in favor of the Democrat and even today the largest newspaper in ALASKA is endorsing Obama.
With the reports of Mrs. Palin's spending (through the RNC coffers, of course) on clothes, hair and makeup (Bill Maher says Palin's makeup artist is the highest paid person in the campaign) in the last days before our quadrennial ritual, the underdog status of Mr. McCain is assured and he is resorting to smear, fear and dirty tricks. However, he's making so many gaffes and Freudian slips it's just not even funny. 'Senior moment' doesn't begin to cover it. He's regressing to schoolyard name-calling and the more modern evasion tactics of interview questions as a strategy. Add in Mrs. Palin's 'going rogue' on some issues (most notably on gay marriage earlier this week) and I can smell the desperation from here in my red state.
My blue vote won't count for president in the out-of-touch/out-of-date system we call the Electoral College. My vote won't count except that the county I live in will be the only (and I mean ONLY) little piece of blue in the Midwestern Sea of Red. If the EC is to stay in place, then all states should award electoral votes based on representative districts. I think that would be the way to go, but for every vote to truly count it's time to do away with the EC and elect presidents solely on the popular vote.
That would be change I can believe in.
Bill Clinton was my president. I had threatened to volunteer and work for Frank Zappa in '92 if he was a serious candidate, but then he died. Then in the Kansas primary, I voted for Gerry Brown (yeah I was an idealist). But Clinton ended up being my man because he wanted to get America involved. We all knew he was a randy son of a bitch, but he CARED in ways that GOP leadership doesn't and doesn't seem capable of, nor care to. Obama cares, and maybe he cares TOO much, but we need this, America. We need to change the way we do things, from basic public transportation in middling-sized cities across the country to writing Bills into Law. Someone in the Oval Office who gives a damn will make a difference, but if Mr. Obama will lead us into the future he will make MORE than a difference. He has an opportunity to fundamentally affect the future of America and even the world.
It will be dangerous. He will face racist plots for his assassination. The far, far Right will accuse him of being what he is not and will foment fear in ways that we have never seen before. I worry that Mr. Obama will make it through his first term because the forces aligned against John Kennedy were considerable and there is more influence and money in the world now than ever before. There are also more radical thinkers in the world who will incite the poorly educated to riot and dangerous actions, thanks in large part to the GOP history of diminishing educational opportunities in America.
We cannot continue to settle for 50/50 compromise in Washington. That's just not good enough any more in the 21st century. We must demand 100% of our leaders and representatives. In return we must give them 100% in living up to what America needs and not just what will make our lives easier and more convenient. 50/50 isn't good enough any more, it has to be 100/100. We will all have to be strong, we will all have to be on our guard and we will all, every one of us, have to ensure that Barack Obama can be the president we need him to be.
He will be our next president, but for how long and how effectively is up to each of us.
***UPDATED 10/27/08 804 PM: Feds foil skinhead plot to assassinate Obama from Yahoo! News. Jesus aitch Christ. What a fucking world.