Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Sobering and Funny

Unlike many more Americans than I figured, I'm trying to stay on top of the issues and the candidates in this year's election. My sources include a little bit of television, a lot of newspapers (both liberal and conservative, domestic and international), a smattering of radio, a few blogs, and conversations with friends and Washington insiders. Nonetheless, this article--Five Myths About the American Voter--was sobering and a little disturbing.

Please, please, please do all you can to educate yourself about this election and its candidates. Don't just vote blindly or out of tradition or because of some misguided notion you heard thirteenth hand at a cocktail party or church social or at the grocery store. Know who you're voting for, what's at stake, and why you're voting. And if you're a young person between the age of 18 and 29, please peel yourself away from your Crackberry and your evenings of whatever it is you do in the evenings and read up on this election. A lot is at stake and you may want to do more than just push a button because that's what Mommy and Daddy are doing or because that's how you were raised.

Meanwhile, my photography pal Virginia in Birmingham, Alabama, sent me this clip yesterday from the Jon Stewart Show. I loves me some Karl Rove and this is priceless Rove at his spinning best. Oh, and there's some of that pinhead O'Reilly in here, too.



Enjoy!

5 comments:

Cele said...

Thank you so much. And you are right we should enlighten and educated ourselves daily about who and whom direct our lives and country.

I get so tired of people who say it doesn't count, we don't have a say. Those are the people (my husband) who give up to easily and whan it handed to them. Arm yourself with knowledge and then get out and do something about it.

Colin's Ghost said...

Very interesting about the five myths -- see, this is why I think the Democrats need someone evil on our side! I know, I know, we should rise above. Oh if only rising above got people elected!

I think we need our own Rove working the black magic behind the scenes, someone who can pull the sleight of hand that keeps Obama and Biden, to all appearances, distanced from that dirty work.

Maybe this meeting with Bill Clinton will give us that?

J.M. Tewkesbury said...

Cele: The fact is, even though the electoral college casts the final vote, they can't cast their votes without our votes. So, in that sense, whether we vote matters. (As for the E.C., that needs to be abolished. It's outdated and unnecessary.)


Colin's Ghost: Perhaps Bill Clinton will be our salvation/Karl Rove this year. I think that was Gore's big blunder in 2000 and Kerry didn't bite back like he should have. I hope the DNC and its candidates have learned from past mistakes. As for Karl Rove, he is slimier and more loathsome than Satan and Hitler combined. And that's being generous!

Anonymous said...

Hi -- sorry, I'm just now returning and realized I had accidentally commented under my DH's "secret" identity (which has something to do with an art dealer; he uses it to comment on an art blog).

OK, but about that electoral college, if you look on Politico.com they show McCain 2 points ahead in the popular vote (smell of brain smoking in effort to plot our expatriate life) however in electoral votes Obama is still ahead, 273 to McCain's 265, so I'm feeling a little more friendly towards the EC today.

I'm posting a comment about the election at 8:15 p.m. Clearly I need to get a life.

J.M. Tewkesbury said...

Adriana: I wondered whether that was you! Actually, now that I think about it, what I said to Cele was wrong. In 2000, Gore won the popular vote, but Bush won the E.C. If the E.C. no longer existed, Gore would have been president and our votes would have counted and mattered in a real sense. As it was, they only mattered theoretically.

As for the current stats favoring Obama with the E.C., I like that, too, because it favors my candidate and my choice. Technically, that's all that matters to me. But, on a larger plain, it disturbs that those Americans who are casting their lots with McCain will feel the same way I felt eight years ago....

Oh, hell. Scratch that. If the E.C. is how Obama wins in the end, I don't give a fuck how Republicans or McCain voters feel. Let them see what it's like to not have your vote count for a change!

Hmph.