Somehow in and amongst all of the infant care and sleep-deprivation, I never managed to blog the things I wanted to during my leave. So it goes. But I did want to jot down a few quick notes before the election next week, just to get them out of my head. In no particular order:
- There was never any chance that Hillary Clinton was going to try to screw up the Democratic convention. Similarly, the people who thought that McCain’s pick of Palin would appeal to disaffected Hillary supporters demonstrated how little they think of women. I wasn’t a Clinton supporter, but after observing the way she and her candidacy were treated, I have much less confidence in the Democratic party when it comes to women’s issues. Of course, watching Democrats compare Howard Dean to Osama bin Laden during the last cycle was a good way to have a lot less patience for the whining this cycle about Clinton’s hardball tactics.
- Barack Obama is a superior candidate and will make a decent President, but he’s not demonstrated to me that he’s any kind of great progressive. I expect to be disappointed a great deal during the next 4 years if he wins. That’s far better than the alternative, however.
- It really puzzles me when people refer to the last few election cycles and claim that the Republican party is a party of ideas. Umm, no. They are the party of anti-ideas, if anything – all about tearing down and destroying ideas and institutions that others have worked on. Really, the notion that ranting about taxes and Social Security, working to suppress the vote, and shouting “small government” all the while dog whispering to closet racists and religious wackos is about ideas completely devalues the term. Of course, Republicans are also good at screwing with language, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.
- Four years ago when Obama gave his speech at the DNC, and people started salivating about the possibility of him running for President. I just shook my head. I told TheGuy: If this country elects Barack Obama after nearly electing George W. Bush twice, than we are truly a schizophrenic nation. I still think that.
- Speaking of the stolen elections in 2000 and 2004, it’s going to be weird to hear the phrases “the President” and “Mr. President” and not feel queasy – again, assuming Obama wins by a large enough margin that it can’t be stolen. I tried not to write those phrases very often when referring to the Occupant, and for several years I think I managed to not ever refer to Dubya as the President.
- Recovering from the Bush Administration’s malfeasance – a disastrous eight years by virtually any metric – is going to take a long time. My kid, and his kids (if he has any), will still be paying for what Dubya and Cheney and all those who enabled them have done. I’ve already apologized to TLG several times for this – even though I never voted for them. As far as I’m concerned, anyone who votes for McCain-Palin is now doing harm to my child and his future. I was ticked off at those who enable the rightwing wackos before, but when it comes to TLG, MamaBear’s claws really come out. Grrrrrr.
- Obama would not be able to accomplish what he’s done without Howard Dean’s 2004 campaign and subsequent work at the DNC. I don’t think Dean is given nearly enough credit, generally (although given that Obama is keeping Dean on at the DNC, at least for now, there’s some hint that he’s aware even if others aren’t). There was an article I read recently about the Obama campaign in which the only reference to Dean was to say that they used Meet-Up. Bzzt. Fail. There was a lot more innovation to the Dean campaign than Meet-Up, and Obama (good for him) is capitalizing on it. Digby’s got a short piece about this, but there’s a lot more to be said. Not that Dean’s the type to go out and demand credit. Paul Begala and the rest of those annoying Democrats who sneered at the 50-state strategy can kiss mah grits!
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Virginia’s going blue baby. If Virginia goes for Obama, TheGuy and I will take our share of the credit thankyewverymuch. We are after all part of the population boom that’s moved here to “communist” northern Virginia in the last decade.
The only place I’ve seen McCain lawn signs around here was in a pretty hoity-toity part of Alexandria. Elitist swine. (Haha.) -
David Sedaris on undecided voters:
To put them in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. “Can I interest you in the chicken?” she asks. “Or would you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it?”
To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked.
I mean, really, what’s to be confused about?
- Oh.. there was more.. but this is enough for now, I guess…
