I’ve been posting a lot about the election of late. Rather, I’ve been reading a lot of feeds, from a lot of sites, and using Google Reader to share them, and then later turning them into Big Long Election Posts that go on, and on, and on.
Part of this is that I’ve had the opportunity to do so this week. Part of it is just getting a bee in my bonnet (yes, as has been noted in several quarters, the Sarah Palin pick energized the base on both sides). And part of it is that Google Reader makes it all just so damned easy.
That said, someone IMed something very nice to me today:
Someone: you’re providing an invaluable service in your poli-compiling.
Dave: Really? I’ve been feeling like I’ve been moderately obsessive and probably redundant with it. That’s good feedback to hear.
Someone: oh… there’s a point at which a person might mutter something like “really, Dave? 66 shared items since noon? really?”, but it’s generally stuff I haven’t seen elsewhere, cuz i don’t follow pundit blogs or news sites.
It’s good to know that this is not just a rhetorically or internetally masturbatory effort, but that someone’s actually getting some value out of what I’m doing.
And here’s something else that’s interesting (to me, at least). I am, I like to think, a moderate (to BD’s eternal amusement and annoyance). I find some of the rhetoric of the Left to be annoying-to-disturbing (though less so than an equivalent amout of rhetoric from the Right), and, honestly speaking, I didn’t decide who I was voting for in 2004 until the 11th Hour. I disliked Bush’s policies, but disliked Kerry as a person. I did end up voting for Kerry, however, though looking back on my rationalization of it, I was more than a bit of a doofus (ah, for the power to go back in time and slap some sense into myself).
This time, though, there’s no question in my mind. While not swooning over Obama like a bobby-soxer over Frankie, I have no doubt that he is a superior candidate in all respect to McCain, and the VP choices only magnified that sense.
It’s … odd feeling so certain about something political. It worries me, not so much that I’m wrong, but that I’ll be really, truly upset if Obama doesn’t win.
And all that said, in case anyone thinks I’m some sort of really profound political pundit, my post mortem of the 2004 campaign and look-ahead to 2008 is … um … nothing that’s going to win a Pullitzer. Looking at it, I sort of feel like the Foundation folks showing up for Hari Seldon only to discover he didn’t take the Mule into account. I know what I was talking about then, but it seems a whole other world only four years later.
Dave, you coverage has been spot on! I spend my days at work listening to Air America, and I feel like other than that one outlet that there cannot be enough coverage on these issues since the mainstream media is soooo slow in catch up with the strange and out of touch elements of the McCain/Palin ticket.
I’ve always considered myself a social liberal and a fiscal conservative. That’s why I’ve always identified as an independant, I’ll vote for whoever I feel will do the best job.
As I’ve gotten older I’ve gotten more fiscally conservative, but as I’ve gained more experience I’ve become more socially liberal. While these two elements CAN be in conflict, it also adds a clarity to what I’m looking for in a candidate.
Over the course of my voting life I’ve been amazed at the shift in American politics as the Republicans shed all pretense of being fiscally conservative and threw the middle class to the dogs.
Meanwhile the Dems shifted to the center, picked up the fiscal ball, and while not quite knowing what to do with it, but still picked it up.
Black is White, Up is Down, Democrats are protecting our civil rights and wallets and Republicans are organizing themselves into a self destructive spiral.
🙂
Actually, it’s been remarkable that the MSM has turned on Palin/McCain the way they have. It’s a very odd year.
I tend to think of myself as a social liberal and fiscal conservative, too, which is why I’ve shifted between party identification over time — though generally registered Democrat because neither party has been exemplary in the fiscal arena, but the Dems are (to my mind) clearly a lot better in the socially progressive arena.
It’s a shame, because there are elements of the old small-l-libertarian common-sense Republican heritage that I admire and could vote for … if the GOP ever glanced that direction again.