on my birthday, i'm allowed to pontificate

[sanpaku_backup]

OK, the SNL skit tonight redeemed Tina Fey and Amy Poehler slightly from the unfunny nightmare that is Baby Mama.

Seriously, the idea of this woman being president should scare the living hell out of anyone. But notice this bad thing that's happened, where all anyone is talking about is her. Elections are usually won by the person who everyone is talking about.

So everyone is freaking out. But I have a strange resignation when it comes to this election. I mean, think about it. Four years ago the country voted to return the whole gang of torture enablers, including Donald Rumsfeld, who would be indicted as a war criminal in most parts of the world. In other words, a majority of politically involved people in this country -- not to mention the vast majority of white, middle to upper class people who you and I basically rub shoulders with in our daily lives -- found it within themselves to regard Abu Ghraib as something to essentially shrug at. This country has already jumped the shark. In that sense, there's not that much better to be expected from a national election for quite some time.

All the same, people: the congressional races look stellar, there's a horrible recession, and the other side has nominated a crabby old man. Just stop reading the newspaper for a while, mmkay?

I had a lovely day. The theme of the forseeable future: new musical frontiers.

Comments

[alsoname.livejournal.com]

Dude, spoiler alert for those of us out west, gah!

Kidding.

Baby Mama was not that bad. But I went in expecting it to be the most horrible thing in the history of cinema. It had nowhere to go but up.

[sanpaku.livejournal.com]

It wasn't the worst thing in the history of cinema. It just lacked actual jokes. I'm very glad I didn't pay money to see it.

[saltbox.livejournal.com]

I like the shark-jumping analogy. :)

Seriously, I need to hide myself from the news for awhile.

[flw.livejournal.com]

Glad you had a good day!

Palin was the perfect move. Checkmate. Done and done. The boot heel is right over your nose. It is only going to get worse and worse and worse and worse and worse. We won't even remember what "freedom" was, man! We're fucked. Forever.

Happy Birthday!

tidings of comfort and joy

[sanpaku.livejournal.com]

We are! Absolutely and truly.

Re: tidings of comfort and joy

[flw.livejournal.com]

You can tell by how quickly all the "Undecideds" jumped to McCain. It was white people who couldn't come up with a good reason not to vote for the Black Guy. When Palin was chosen, the self-perceived racist act of voting for McCain was canceled out by the "pro-feminist" act of voting for Palin. They needed a way to vote for McCain that made them not racist in their own perception. Pretending to be "excited" about Palin is it. It is a picture perfect example of cognitive dissonance. So, it was just... brilliant. And perfectly timed, of course. It completely and totally deflated the Obama campaign. I wouldn't be surprised if the lapel pin issue starts resurfacing now.

Still, we are going to have a massive exit poll apologetics campaign. People will vote for McCain and "apologize" by saying they voted for Obama... if anyone asks.

Re: tidings of comfort and joy

[sanpaku.livejournal.com]

True enough, but if the point was to get some kind of feminist slant, there are so many other Republican women he could have chosen. So I wouldn't call it "brilliant." It was actually pretty stupid.

In this election there have always been a lot of undecideds, probably on the racial issue. It's part of the gamble.

You don't care. I know what you're doing right now.

Re: tidings of comfort and joy

[flw.livejournal.com]

alsoname is watching the new show Fringe so I am following on the computer. I do care. I care very much. I think Obama is doomed. DOOOOOMED. That was the trick of the move, man. All the (closeted, even unto themselves) racists just need her as a symbol. So, the rightest of the right wing women is just as good as any other. She just needed to be a woman. And this is the VP after all, there is hardly a more inconsequential job in the world... except for that one thing. All the racists are going to completely overlook her actual policy positions. In fact, they're all busily deluding themselves that McCain is pro choice, etc... right now.

I am NEVER wrong about these elections, except for the last five...

[msmidge.livejournal.com]

Resignation is probably the least heartbreaking way to deal with this election.

We had a birthday party yesterday for Sam. We retroactively celebrate on your behalf. Happy to you, as Sam says!

[sanpaku.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Dubya's resignation would be great! Oh, wait...

Thanks!

[sethg]

Chill.

I'm not going to say Obama has the election in the bag, but I think he's in a stronger position than the past week's polls suggest.

After a summer trying on different themes, McCain seems to have settled on "vote for me because I'm going to bring change to Washington". In other words, he is fighting on Obama's home turf. Obama has six weeks to finish tying Bush around McCain's neck, because if he can make this election about "do you want change or do you want more of the same", then he wins--just as Clinton won in 1992, in spite of all the dirt that was thrown at him.

[sanpaku.livejournal.com]

Oh, I agree! If there is any use whatsoever in studying electoral fundamentals, everything favors the Democrats. I think McCain may be at a high water mark at the moment. It's just that the polls have also shown the election being much closer than one would think, given the fundamentals, for many months now. Whether that's a race thing, a McCain thing, or an underlying conservatism in the public thing, I don't know.

[sethg]

I think part of it is the post-convention bounce, part of it is the quantity of unrefuted bullshit that has been circulating about Palin, and part of it is that most voters have only just started paying attention to the campaign.

[cellio]

Happy birthday.

[sanpaku.livejournal.com]

Thank you!