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Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Burnt Out


The other day I received an e-mail suggesting that a lot of us are burnt out. I accepted that for most people, but I'm a political junkie, who's always craving for more, so I thought I was above that. This morning, I just turned off the television, got on my bicycle went on a long ride because I got my fill of pundits telling me, "today's poll shows Romney ahead in this poll but Obama is ahead in early voting in the exact same poll. "

It's sad that our presidential election results comes down to about 113 counties and six states. We are so polarized and entrenched in our beliefs. It's sad how someone can make a fool of himself on a national stage like Governor Rick Perry did, go out and stump for Mitt Romney in Colorado and only manage to attract 60 people, but he still might be our next governor. I know it used to happen in the south all the time, but we now live in the days of Google where we can do some instant fact checking. Ignorance is no longer an excuse.

We now live in an era where marketing trumps the truth and if Mitt Romney wins using this method, it will be the standard bearer for all political campaigns in the future. The Romney campaign brushed aside the fact checkers early in the campaign, and it worked. Mitt Romney did a complete makeover for the first debate, and it worked because it threw the president completely off his game. We now have a virtual tie with the same President Obama competing with a different Mitt Romney than the one who won the GOP nomination. This is a gentler kinder Mitt Romney (in the last 3 weeks) who doesn't scare the soccer moms and says he will work with the opposition, although when he had a chance to do that as governor, he vetoed over 800 bills. It's the same Mitt Romney who constantly whined about the president attacking him in the third debate, as if he didn't stoop to that in the first and second debate.

The debates have come down to, who can say the memorable lines that will be talked about tomorrow and looking presidential; whatever that means. I can't believe that I sat there nervously saying, " please don't go all Ninja on him, President Obama" in one segment and in another I'm saying, " are you just going to sit there and let him get away with that?" The pundits have it right, it’s reality TV. That's too bad because global warming was not mentioned, the poor were mentioned only as an afterthought about food stamps, and competing thoughts about our education system was not discussed. Both candidates gave lip service to the latter and Mitt said he loved teachers, but it was more in the abstract. The president praised his "Race to the Top" effort, but we won't see the results for another other 10 years or so.

It's funny how I initially stayed away from Twitter because of the limited 140 characters, but I now prefer that media because it gives me back responses in real time. You get away from the “cut and paste" crowd but still have the ability to back up your statements with a link. Yes, I have to sort through a lot of tweets before I get to a good one, but it's usually worth the effort. I like having my smart phone nearby as I watch the debates because I can pull up Twitter, and someone has done all the fact checking for me. The best part about Twitter is that you don’t have to argue with nitwits who don’t know the basics of democracy, civics or economics. They still think a single person can lead our nation into socialism just because of their literal interpretation of the “general welfare clause “of our constitution.

In the next 13 days, I'm either going to quit blogging altogether, take a long exodus, or blog about something else other than politics; regardless of the election results. I successfully transitioned away from the VA forum without any lingering regrets, and I suspect walking away from a personal blog won't be that difficult. This is not a surprise to the people I have constant contact with via email because I made a decision way back in January, but then it was about quitting the VA forum and concentrating on a personal blog.

6 comments:

born2Bme said...

I'm kind of feeling resigned a little bit too. I hope President Obama wins, but if he doesn't, it's not the end of the world, because I'm no more than a speck of sand on the beach, and what I feel doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of things. I'll continue doing what I've been doing and just deal with whatever happens.
In my heart of heart, I don't think Republicans will be able to get away with drastic changes to the entitlements that are really needed, and they don't dare mess with the elderly, vets, or those nearing retirement, and expect to get a second term.
People just don't have the intelligence that they used to have, and it has come down to us against them, instead of us for the good of the Country and it's future.
I think it's sad, and disappointing that this once great Nation has come down to this.

Mike said...

Great post.

I'm still confident that President Obama will win because of his superior ground game in the battle ground states. If he wins Ohio, Wisconsin and Nevada it's all over. I just saw a registration fiasco in the battle ground state of Colorado and Florida seems to be up to their usual shenanigans, so Romney can still win. If it ends up in a tie, Romney will become the 45th president and Joe Biden will be his vice president. You see, if it's a tie, the House of Representatives will decide and each state gets one vote.

Republicans have the land mass but Democrats have cities like Los Angeles, New York City, Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia. I imagine if it comes to that, there will be steps to get rid of the Electoral College.

You're absolutely right, it won't be the end of the world and I will do just fine regardless of who gets elected. I can't say that for the poor and lower middle class because they will take the brunt of the spending cuts.

Unfortunately, Romney and the rest of his Republican Party favor the austerity measures that devastated Great Britain and Germany. I'm afraid that chaos and another recession will be the result. In a recent Romney campaign speech, he said that his first priority is to work with democrats because he thinks that Paul Ryan can smooth over the Tea Party House of Representatives... That's pretty naive because he won't get many if any Democrats to the table if he repeals Obama Care.

To the victor go the spoils, so I'm not going to be a sideline critic on economic issues. I was a constant critic of President George W. Bush because he took us into a war with a country that did not have weapons of mass destruction nor had anything to do with 911. That's what happens when you elect a Commander in Chief who's not up to the task.


Mike said...

I'm so glad the World Series has come in time to take a little bite off the frustration:

This is an example of frustration:

A few weeks ago, pundits were saying that Colin Powell has yet to endorse a candidate and that coveted endorsement could go a long way....

This morning, Colin Powell endorsed President Obama and the same pundits are saying at this stage of the game, Powell's endorsement means very little because he endorsed President Obama the last time. They said if he wouldn't have endorsed Obama it would have been a bigger story or if he would've declined to endorse either one.

I think Jon Stewart makes a lot more sense. He mocked Romney for saying that he was a proven leader but he can only be identified as the one standing behind President Obama's foreign policy decisions...:-)

born2Bme said...

This election process is too damned long. Seems like it started the instant President Obama won the election last time.
The VA even seems unusually quiet about the election in the last few days.

Mike said...

The election process is indeed too long... I can remember three years ago when the pundits were talking about Governor Pawlenty making a trip to Iowa.

All they need is six months and three debates spaced a week apart for the primaries and the presidential race... It saves a lot of money and it might give the undecided an incentive to pay attention.

I emailed someone this morning saying that the VA forum is not like it was in 2008. I still remember the daily duels, we had back then.... It's just as well because the posters that are on there today get their information from a fictional movie about the president...lol

born2Bme said...

That movie is what they already think anyway. It just justifies to them that they were right all along.
You can't fix stupid and gullable.