Thoughts on the Election

I was at a bar on Tuesday night when the news poured in that Barack Obama had won Virginia, pushing him over the threshold of 270 electoral votes to become President Elect of the United States of America. The election of Barack Obama will definitely fight it out for moments that defined this generation. I'm glad he got elected, obviously. I don't think I could have stomached a McCain-Palin administration (then a Palin-Lieberman administration) for the next four or eight years. No thank you. It has taken me a few days to gather my thoughts. It still hasn't sunken in yet that the country in which I live elected this guy who nobody thought had a chance when he announced his candidacy in 2007. It excites me. It renews my faith in the American political process that all of the "scandals" (Williams Ayers, Reverend Wright, ACORN) proved to be non-starters. Whether Barack Obama is the best president we ever had, the worst president we ever had, or completely forgettable, America finally stopped being influenced by fear and bullying. It will be interesting to see an America led by an open intellectual again. Not to say that Bush was stupid. I have said many times that I think the whole Texas Cowboy image is largely self-constructed. I think Bush reads Dostoevsky at 4AM on the toilet so no one can catch him. He had to pretend that he was stupid because stupid equals down-to-earth. It ingratiated him with his constituency and that's sad. Obama did a lot of things during this election, but pretending he was stupid was not one of them. Let's hope he leads us into a better age. Congratulations President Elect Barack Obama.

John McCain is silly

I know I said I would refrain from talking too much about the election. Well, deal with it. I'm allowed to change my mind, the same way Barack Obama and John McCain have been changing their minds on several issues as we draw closer to November 5th, but that's not the point of this post.

Today, I was watching John McCain talk to a group of "young voters." You know those people who are apparently going to play an instrumental role in every Presidential race, until election day roles around and it turns out...not so much. He was wearing a baseball cap with the word "Navy" printed on it. And I couldn't helped being filled with rage. Not because I hate the Navy, or even John McCain for that matter. But one article of clothing seems to perfectly encapsulate my issue with the guy. This desire he has to be liked. Not to say that Barack Obama doesn't also possess a borderline sad desire to be liked, but since Obama is actually likable (in the strictest definition of the word) it's not as noticeable. Every time I hear McCain talk about being in a POW camp, or how he's more experienced, or about how the surge is working, or starting out a sentence with the words "My friends..." I half expect to hear him talking about how he used to live in a van down by the river.

McCain needs to realize that people don't like him. And deal with it. His party doesn't even like him. Not really. They (at best) tolerate him. But they do respect him. Want proof? Sample the pack of lies they spouted on his behalf last week at the Republican National Convention. Mitt Romney talking about how we need to move away from a Liberal Washington D.C. Yeah, Mitt. The same liberal Washington DC that's been implementing pushy, militaristic politics for the past eight years? That's been ensuring that we have more pregnant, disease-ridden teenagers thanks to "ignorance-only " sex education? That liberal Washington DC? To quote Elizabeth Darko, Mitt Romney can "Go suck a fuck." (Since I A: Am digressing and B: Do not know how one would actually go about sucking a fuck, I'll get back to my main point).

I think John M cCain should relish the fact that he's unlikable. Look at Dick Cheney. Even Gargamel (pictured right in a photo taken at the the 2004 Republican National Convention) thinks Cheney is "kind of mean." And yet Cheney has managed to do just fine by one outsider's standards or another (let's face it, he's been our real President for the past eight years). McCain needs to stop referring to Americans as "My friends." He needs to stop trying to ingratiate himself with the American people. That's what he has Sarah Palin for no w, and frankly, in the two or so weeks she's entered the picture, she's been doing it a hell of a lot better than he ever could (God help us all). My point is, McCain should embrace his inner Dick Cheney and just have fun. If they bring up how he left his invalid wife and upgraded for a better model, he should just wag his head and say "Yeah, I did that. And I'd do it again. What else?" If they bring up how his current wife Cindy is pretty much a drug addict/thief, he should just hit them back with an attitude-filled "The bitch needed drugs and money, so she stole. It ain't rocket science. What else?" If they accuse him of picking Sarah Palin as his running mate because he didn't have the balls to pick Joe Liebermann, which kind of shows that he cares more about winning than what's right for the country, he should flip 'em off and say "Yeah, I did. I want to be President. A lot of people who want to be President would do (and have done) a lot worse things to get there, so don't hate on me just because I'm fly. What else?" He should be having FUN, man. After all, he may LITERALLY drop dead tomorrow.

Some Thoughts on the Presidential Race

This is the first post actually dedicated to the 2008 Presidential Election and may very well be the last for any number of reasons. Not the least of which are that I don't want to make it the focus of this blog. Also, I'm a legal permanent resident in this country, which means I am not allowed to vote until I become a citizen (if and when I choose to), so I'm not really supposed to be complaining, nor am I allowed to have an input. This is all fine with me of course, because even though the election is more than five months off, I'm already bored/done with it. My candidate of choice (Kucinich) is nowhere near the ballot, and in the end who ever wins is going to feel so much like the less desirable friend of the person you really wanted to have sex with. That being said, I hate the Hillary-or-nothing Democrats just as much, if not more, than the Obama-or-nothing Democrats. They're both just as foolish and short-sighted in my book, but in the end, it's the former that may cause John McCain to coast to a victory come November and that's what makes me feel bored/done.

Here's the thing. I am not particularly fond of any of the three remaining presidential hopefuls, that is Obama, Clinton, or Mccain, for different reasons obviously. As a black man, I am surprised how immune I've been to this notion that Obama represents change--real, meaningful change. It might have something to do with the fact that his voting record/political positions are hardly reflective of this so-called "change" he speaks of. Are we to assume he represents change because he's black? Yet he wants people to look beyond his race when making their decision, which is understandable and necessary if he hopes to win (and, since he's the presumptive Democratic nominee, I do hope he wins by the way). But he can't go in wanting to be both exempted from and exalted because of his race. It's kind of a crapshoot either way and he's just got to hope for the best when it comes to how the electorate reacts to the possibility of a black president.
I flat-out dislike McCain because of his ridiculous plans to keep us in Iraq well past his own life-expectancy.

And Ms. Clinton. A lot of people have given her a lot of flack over the past...well, always. That's why I admire her for going at this head-first and getting as far as she did. She put up a hell of a fight and either her or Obama are more than qualified, IMHO, to be president of the United States. Again, neither would be my top choice. But I think that enough really is enough. By staying in the race, all Clinton is doing is fueling those ridiculous rumors about her wanting John McCain to win so she can run again in 2012. Which is (repeat) a ridiculous theory. Hillary is a smart person and she knows that this country will never elect a 65-year-old (which is how old she'll be) WOMAN into the Whitehouse. Though the same country seems to have no problem with potentially electing Crimean War veteran John McCain into the same position. But sexism abounds when it comes to politics--that's just a fact and Hillary knows this. However, she needs to drop out so that the party can rally around Obama as the nominee (which he pretty much is anyway), pick a VP nominee (which, if he's smart, he'll seriously consider picking her. Don't know if she'll accept...) and start campaigning against McCain. And I hope that Obama is ready for the big show. Because the battle between him and Hillary is going to seem like shits and giggles compared to what McCain and the Republican party have in store for him...

That is all. Peace. Love. And Pretension.