I rarely comment on politics, because there are numerous other blogs devoted to the subject, and the comments that my blogs draw are always from radicals with their own agendas--people for whom any view that deviates from theirs is totally unacceptable and to be attacked immediately.
However, on this election day I find myself unable to just accept things the way they are or not to record my feelings. As I head for the polls, I'm really worried and totally frustrated. I had no problems working my way through the local measures, nor the local candidates. Everything was well set out--facts, statements, figures as needed for the bond measures.
What I'm waffling over is what to do with my presidential vote. No--I'm not undecided because I have no sense, no opinion or no choice. It's because the choices I have are both scary and marginally acceptable to me under any circumstances. And not for any of the obvious reasons the radicals are going to be ready to ram right down my throat.
When the election season began, I was completely energized. Finally, it looked like a woman was going to run for president. Furthermore, she was a woman I had already seen in action. A woman I respected and even admired, without having to be in agreement with everything she did, had done or was going to do in the future. After years of standing on the sidelines, we women had Hillary Clinton.
Then suddenly, here came Barack Obama. Oprah jumped on his bandwagon. President Kennedy's relatives jumped, too (and Caroline Kennedy isn't even a politician, political pundit or otherwise has any kind of believable credentials to endorse anyone.) People went crazy, like he was the newest rock star or movie star. He apparently got caught up in all this frenzy, too, when he took off on a European tour like he was already The Prez of the US. He held a giant rally in Germany that left me wondering who the hell was paying for this excess that wasn't going to net him more than a handful of votes from ex-pats and tourists.
The media kept talking about the Clinton Machine (I've never understood that term, except to know it's derogative and condescending) and asking what we would call Bill Clinton if he ended up as First Man in the White House. Would he change the china patterns? Would he redecorate? Ha...ha...ha.
Michelle Obama was brought onto shows like The View, so she could chat about her clothing finds at local stores instead of the designer duds sported by the likes of Cindy McCain. She showed us that she can't or won't shake hands with anyone in a regular manner, but instead likes to knock knuckles (is she really going to offer that method to heads of state and foreign royalty?) The media fell in love with her--she was within their comfort zone--they could relegate the woman to the position of supportive spouse in the background, organizer of dinners, defender of her young childrens' privacy (but they could be trotted out with great success in the cute department when needed at the convention.)
Barack proved himself to be a great orator. John McCain showed himself to be a witty old dude with terrific genes, evidenced by parading his mother, who is over 90, on the campaign trail. Neither of them seemed to have concrete solutions for the growing disaster of this nation's economy. McCain's ideas were the more declarative and measurable of the two. What did Obama stand for? I tried to watch the debates, but all I saw was a lot of talking around the issues but little that made me feel there was a good grasp on how bad things were economically, how the continuing war was depleting our nation in every way while taking countless of our young people and career military alike.
The only one who had actually made me sure of what she would do for us as President, the only one who even appeared presidential at the conventions, was Hillary Clinton. She looked at ease in her own skin, her presence was commanding, her pantsuit (which had been a subject of derision, too) was a flawless choice of poise and comfort (just to prove that I didn't only check out Michelle Obama's clothing choices.)
With Obama beating Hillary in the popularity contest the Presidential race had degenerated into, I hoped he would at least pick her as his VP choice. Whether he did and she refused or whether he just never did because he was afraid her personality was too strong or he didn't want a Clinton or a woman as a running mate, we will never know. What was certain to me was that with so little experience in the political arena but a well-documented ego that demanded he be recognized as a political force from the time when he was a young man, he was going to have to find someone who could guide him with foreign policy decisions and he was going to be swimming in very deep waters with the stock market tanking, the banking and mortgage industries going belly-up and Bush figuring now was the time to bomb and invade everyone in the Middle East, Pakistan and any other country he didn't like the look of during one of his frequent whims or mental vacations.
So, he chose Biden. A white-haired white male established part of the political establishment. The Candidate for Change had picked the poster-child of Politics as Usual.
And then McCain, ever the self-proclaimed maverick, picked a completely greenhorn running mate who is a woman. Whether it was done to show the Democrats that the Republicans could be edgy or because it was believed that the women shortchanged by the complete lock-out of women by the Democrats would charge over to the Republican ticket just because a female had been put on the ballot (any woman would do for the women voters, because we were shallow feminist cattle) still is an unresolved question for me.
So, as I head for the polls today, I am faced with an untenable decision. Who do I choose:
A) The candidate who has no experience whatsoever but trails an establishment male behind him to prove he's covered his bases and can reassure us that what he lacks can be made up for by this seasoned politician, even though he's supposed to be the candidate for change (now there's an oxymoron.)
B) The self-proclaimed Maverick who stands for everything I don't believe in, which is epitomized in George W. Bush, who may be end up with the title of the worst president in this nation's history.
C) Completely go the cowardly way by voting Green or Libertarian or whatever Ralph Nader is using as his party this time around.
D) Excuse myself completely by saying the lines are too long?
Yesterday, the morning crew of one local TV station sent a reporter out to the early voting lines. She assured us that the wait was probably worth it, because in the morning there would be angry people in line at the polling stations. Is she clairvoyant, or just as sensationalist?
That's another blog.
What time do the polls close?
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