"Random Musings On Election Eve"

A blog provides an outlet for disseminating your opinions and thoughts. Without it, your disseminations are restricted to family and friends. And when they get tired of you, your final option is disseminating in your head, the recipients of your wisdom, an audience of neurons.

Okay, let’s get these out. Maybe you’ll have some opinions of your own to pass along and we can give our defenseless neurons a break.

In no particular order:

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When I think of a “steady hand at the tiller”, I don’t imagine a fighter pilot. I saw Top Gun. Fighter pilots are insane.

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“If Obama loses, Hillary is a prime candidate for 2012.”

You’ve got a car in your showroom window that’s not selling because there’s a “car of the future” on the market that’s kicking its ass. Is it really reasonable to believe that a car that’s considered old fashioned today will be considered less old fashioned in four years?

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“If McCain loses, Sarah Palin will be given serious consideration for 2012.”

This opinion confuses show business with substance. From an entertainment perspective, Sarah Palin displays many winning attributes. But her positions – no abortions even in the case of rape and incest (consistent, but yow!), small town Americans are the real Americans – stand not only outside the national mainstream, they represent the extreme end of the Republican party, an end which has worn out its welcome even with Republicans.

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“Obama Outspends McCain Four to One”

What happens when the candidate who has the most money to spend is an idiot? Is a “money war” the most sensible method we can think of for electing a president?

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McCain in 2000. McCain in 2008. Wha' hoppin'? And why did he allow it to?

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“If the Democrats have a monopoly on the presidency and the Congress, they will be evaluated on their record in 2010.”

That would be valid if, when the Republicans left office, they took their mistakes away with them. Since that’s not how it works, the only way a Democratic administration can honestly be evaluated is on the basis of how competently they clean up of the astonishing mess the Republicans left behind.

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“McCain Maligns the Canadian Health Care System” (a particular pet peeve)

Isn’t the Canadian health care system very similar to the military health care system that took care of McCain when he was released from the Vietnamese prison?

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“Barack Obama will raise taxes on people making over $250,000 a year.”

“Barack Obama will raise taxes on people making over $42,000 a year.”

Are numbers now a matter of opinion? Is there no way of definitively determining which number it is?

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Why does a populist have to be a plumber? Why can’t a populist have a university degree?

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What if it was discovered that voting with the president 90% of the time made McCain the senator who voted with the president the least?

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“Why are only Republicans criticized for dirty tactics? Both sides employ these strategies.”

Equally? If one person drives five miles over the speed limit and another person drives forty miles over the speed limit, unequal punishment – or in the case of politics, unequal criticism – is entirely appropriate. Anything else would be hideously unfair.

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“If black people can vote for Obama because he’s black, then a white person can vote against Obama because he’s black. It’s the same thing.”

This is a smokescreen for racism. No matter how black people voted – for Obama or against Obama – Barack Obama would still be black. And that would still be the only reason those white people are refusing to vote for him.

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“Vote! It matters.”

As a result of the all-or-nothing Electoral College system, if you live in a state leaning heavily in one candidate’s direction, your vote, either for or against that candidate, means nothing.

Also, as one pundit put it, “I don’t know who I’m voting for – the candidate or the copywriter.” Because of the tightly orchestrated campaigns – where empty catchphrases fill the air and spontaneous incidents are verboten, there’s a reasonable chance we have no idea who we’re voting for.

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I voted. But you can do what you want. It’s all a roll of the dice. The good thing is, in four years (or two, for the House), we can roll the dice again.