Tuesday was the first time I actually watched election returns come in on my own time, when I wasn't forced to because of work.
And I came away from it all feeling more discouraged than ever about all of it.
This goes beyond Barack Obama falling behind Hiliary Clinton. He's in decent shape, although he is behind and it will take a little doing for him to catch up. He's a candidate I'm actually excited about, and I'd hate to see him lose to Clinton.
I hesitate to bash Clinton here too much, as I am a liberal Democrat and will support her if she wins, but I think the Democrats are taking a huge risk by nominating her in a year that we should win the presidency hands down.
Bush mangled the office in a way that's never been seen before. I can name many, many things he did to hurt us. Tell me one good thing he did for our country. He screwed up New Orleans, butchered Iraq and just turned in a budget that manages to slash most social programs and yet puts us in more debt than ever. If he was a football coach, he would have been fired years ago, and it's doubtful he'd even get a job as an assistant once he was run out of town.
The country is pissed and ready to elect a Democrat. So why put Clinton, a polarizing candidate who many people simply don't like very much? Some don't like her because she's a strong woman (which is unfortunate) and others see her as weak because of the way she stood by Bill after he got a piece of ass. She's a fairly typical politican, a wishy washy moderate, and I don't see her accomplishing a lot.
That's a little harsh. I realize that. She's far better than any of the Republicans.
This is the root of my problem: I don't see any candidates getting anything done.
Huckabee talked about "putting an out-of-business sign on the I.R.S.' door" Really? We're a mess. Programs like Medicare and Social Security are shooting out of control, and we're heading for a recession, and we cutting taxes? How, exactly, will that work? I like a tax cut as well as the next guy, but this is not a time to be cutting taxes, and we all know it.
Romney talked about helping the small business owner. What a joke. Republicans hand out more tax breaks and kickbacks to corporations than any other party. How does that help the small business owner?
I kinda like McCain, but he's talking about staying in Iraq, and we need to get out of there as soon as possible. We can't afford the people, the cost or the image it's sticking on us.
I didn't believe anything any of the candidates were telling me last night, including Obama. I just couldn't. Maybe I'm a bitter, cynical journalist at age 36. Maybe I busted too early in the Bodog. Maybe it's because the only thing I've seen politicans do is make it a lot harder to play online poker. Maybe I've heard it all before, way too many times, and never seen anything come out of it.
And yet I liked the optimism Tuesday. We're turning out in record numbers to vote for candidates who we believe can change things. I guess we can whine about the state of our country, like me, or we can turn out to vote and at least try to make a difference. I didn't even vote Tuesday because Colorado has caucuses, and if you think I have time to spend most of the night to raise my hand to vote instead of stop by the polls like most normal states, then you haven't been reading this blog.
Good for the rest of you. But after listening to all those empty promises Tuesday, I can't help but think we're all taking a pretty healthy puff on the political pipe.
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6 comments:
Face it, N.O. was screwed up by the city and the state, not the feds. Iraq was mishandled but going much better now. Please don't make it sound like Clinton made the White House classy. He was and is still a blemish on the history of our nation.
Bush's economic plan worked. You cannot point at the last 2 months and claim it wipes away what he accomplished through his tax cuts. Those cuts- which should be kept because they put more money in the government coffers- should be kept.
Social Security is a mess because Democrats keep insisting it is fine and won't do anything to fix it. They view it as their money, not our money.
Small businesses benefit from the tax breaks as larger corporations buy from them. You cannot deny the tax cuts worked, unless you expect the government to take care of everybody. Seriously, you think the government can run health care?
Thanks for the comments STB. I won't respond to them or any other comments left here regarding this rant (even though I find myself addicted to comments). Partly because debates, while fun, are usually fruitless, and mostly because I had my chance to spout off there, so you should have your chance here.
I'll keep myself from starting a fight. =) But I have to say- having seen Obama in person- I truly believe that HE believes what he says. I believe that he wants to change things, and that he is as fed up with the state of things as the rest of us. Do I think he can do all that he wants? Probably not. But I'd bet money (which is in short supply these days!) that he will do more to accomplish it than anyone else.
I copmpletely agree that Hillary is polarizing- it was what first led me to Obama...
And my one little dig- I would rather have a president screw his intern than screw his country. (and yes, I FULLY believe that NO, and an economy that has sucked much longer than 2 months, tax cuts, war spending, etc etc etc are the fault of this president and a repulican congress....) But that's just my opinion. OK, so I guess I couldn't keep my mouth shut... sorry.=)
While I pretty much completely disagree with the substance of stb's comments, peaker's right -- comment section's not the place. ;-)
That said, I wanted to let Peaker know that on policy, McCain's actually a LOT more conservative than folks think, a lot more so than Romney, in fact, and except for a couple of...ahem...issues of legistating morality, McCain's actually more conservative than even Huckabee.
I was looking at who I could live with if the Dems lost this year, and was frankly disappointed once I read a complete run down of McCain on the issues.
Romney's a rubber band when it comes to his convictions, Huckabee wants to set science back 200 years, and McCain is, in act and deed, even more conservative than Bush -- he just doesn't actively court the neocons, and moderates his words to try to draw the indies in the middle.
Answer me this. You claim Bush has accomplished nothing. Your Democratic Congress has accomplished....??? They lied their way right into office and did nothing.
How did that go, Promises Promises?
I hope you guys elect someone that will get the fish back on Pokerstars.
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