Monday, February 4, 2008

Super Almost Tuesday

Now, y'all know I'm not the greatest political mind of my generation. Most of what I know about how this country is run, I learned from watching The West Wing. I know that if it's ever critical that I learn how a bill becomes a law, I'll need to rewatch that episode of Schoolhouse Rock.

I have two regular sources of news:
  • whatever I absorb between 5:15 and 6:15 from NPR (this mostly by osmosis, don't you love the way news sounds when you're drifting in and out of sleep?)
  • whatever is ridiculous enough that it makes it to The Daily Show / The Colbert Report
And yet, I have to say, I'm fairly stoked for tomorrow's round of primaries. In that "if I go to bed early, tomorrow will get here faster!" way.

I'm a regular voter. I believe firmly that if you are eligible to vote, and you don't, you forfeit any right you have to complain about whatever lameness ensues. And I refuse to forfeit my right to complain about lameness. I even try to be an informed voter. I like going to the polls (I particularly like WALKING to the polls, it makes me feel like SUPER-CITIZEN!!) Still and all, I've never particularly looked forward to an election before. (I've dreaded some.) And certainly not a primary election.

But as we walked tonight, Nathan and I were running through the various scenarios that could unfold, and commenting on what and who we liked in and about each match up. Clinton v. Romney? Clinton v. McCain? Obama v. Romney? Obama v. McCain? Clinton v. Huckabee? I'm fairly certain I'd find some to most of Huckabee's politics unsavory, but he's a kick to watch on The Colbert Report, and it's hard to pass up the idea of a President Huckabee. Doesn't that almost sound like a fast food restaurant or something? As I drove home, I saw folks hanging a Ron Paul banner from the freeway overpass. Nathan's fairly sure California is going to be big for Ron Paul. He's also a kick to watch on the Colbert Report.

I'm not sure what it is that makes this so exciting. Perhaps its just seeing the light at the end of this tunnel we've been in for eight years. I won't call it "hope" quite yet, I'll save that for when Martin Sheen runs for president. But it does sort of feel like one of those times when you realize history is happening right around you. And not in the way that makes you cringe.

Anyway, I've got to get to bed!! Tomorrow is Super Tuesday. (And the start of Hollywood week, on American Idol!)

5 comments:

Jim Tschen Emmons said...

So, m'chara, going to tell us who you are thinking of backing? We're pretty firmly in the Obama camp (we like smart people and think it would be neat if one ran the country again), but honestly, I wouldn't cry if Clinton won, nor oddly enough, if McCain did (for a conservative he is not all that scary). Our super Tuesday was nothing as we don't have one--we have to wait until the 12th by which time we may make little difference. Still, fun.

Goodyear said...

And then there is my favorite Huckabee quote: "Maybe your ancestors descended from monkeys, but mine didn't" (actually I think he came down from the lemur branch, a little known spur on the semi human tree). We Yachatsians are leaning strongly towards Obama as well, it has a giddy JFK feeling about it. I like Hillary, but she campaigns like a Bush, and I don't like it. And the country could do a lot worse than McCain (see above). It is good having an election that can only lead to improvement, and even more fun to think about conventions that might actually mean something.

Goodyear said...

Ms. Joy pointed out that the Right Wing's favorite fiction writer, Ann Coulter, has been quoted as saying that if McCain won the Republican nomination she would be forced to vote for Hillery. Wonder if anyone has placed any money on that one........?

meteowrite said...

I've heard a lot of that sort of rhetoric about McCain, again from one of my two sources of news. Jon Stewart telling Romney off (not in person) after his quitting speech was quite satisfying.

I, too, am an Obama supporter. I had to do some soul searching about it, there was a reasonably large part of me that felt like I needed to support Hillary, to support the sisters, as it were. I'm not wild about her as a person, based on instinct more than "facts" as Jim likes to call them. :) But, geez, I'd like to see a woman elected president. (I'm not sure Hillary'd make it, honestly, but it would be coooool to see.)

Obabma got the "It'd be cool to see" factor going for him too, obviously, but I heard a soundbyte from one of the gazillons of debates, the one where someone asked if he'd talk to Hugo Chavez, or just nuke him, or something (obviously, that's a paraphrase of the question.) Obama replied that those were exactly the kind of people that you had to keep talking to, because that was the only way you had options. And that's what was in my head when I voted.

Jim Tschen Emmons said...

Lai pointed me toward some Huckabee funnies, and yet, not so funnies... people descended from lemurs can be like that

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1514558134528315602&q=huckabee+pheasant&total=6&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=4

uh, wow...