Presidential Smesidential

How can my friends who follow the presidential campaign debates and the endless speculating media pundits and call-in dumb-knuckles call themselves "political junkies"? What has a love of politics to do with the campaign trail where candidates who want a job will say anything to get it? Am I the lone wolf howling at the moon?

I know it's not the candidates fault. They've inherited this system. They've got to work it as it is.

But I hate all the endless speculation trying to discern between Hillary's coldness and her middle-of-the-road-ness and Obama's fresh-changeness and Edwards' papa-was-a-mill-worker anger-(ness). Let's not forget that whoever gets the job wins a 4 year janitorial position with high expectations of being able to rebuild a ship that's steady sinking in the middle of the ocean.

That's the real deal. Or am I just a cynical, hopeless skeptic?

One thing's for sure: I hated the fact that Republicans liked the looks of GWB or how he talked or the idea of a cowboy being in the White House. I think those voters have blood on their hands. I have no respect for a voter who votes so superficially. Plus, that kind of thinking (relying on whether you LIKE the candidate or not) got this country into this sinking-ship mess with a stubborn boy-king at the helm.

So, it bothers me that Democrats are weighing the idea of a woman in the presidency or an African-American when they should be thinking about who they really believe can do the BEST job, who is most capable of re-establishing American credit (read: hegemony if you must, but it's hegemony of the respectable kind).

And, which candidate fits their ideals the most.

Who fits mine? I'm afraid it's little ole Dennis Kucinich. God help him. Can I vote for him? Would that be rational? What chance would he have in Washington? I think if there's one thing that GWB proves is that with the right connections you can make anything happen in Washington no matter how illegal, how unprecedented and how bad for the country.

I'm also afraid that we're so excited about change that we're not thinking very rationally.

Once you begin thinking about who can make things happen, who has the experience of dealing with neoconservatives, the sharks on the right, the hot-air media, big insurance and the fickle public, you have to ask yourself, "Who can handle them?" I don't know that answer.