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I'm sitting here on a Sunday morning, my head turned toward my computer screen and my back to the television.
The incessant squawking of Chris Matthews is in the background, occasionally broken by the a panel of four Bush apologists telling us that jobs are coming back, the economy is improving, Bush is hero to everyone for visiting Iraq, the Democrats are lost, ect, ect.
And I have nothing to say.
I read the papers every morning. I get up at 6:45 a.m. and read Newsday. Then when I get to work I read the Washington Post. Then I read the New York Times at lunch. Throughout the day I'm constantly on DU checking LBN and trying to keep up to date on what's going on in the world.
And I have nothing to say.
I get daily email updates from Howard Dean and John Kerry. I get mailings from both men asking for money. I check their respective websites and try to figure out which one of them I actually want to support.
And I have nothing to say.
I'm tired. I'm bored. I'm exhausted with this process. I can't engage in another debate about Howard Dean vs. Wesley Clark. I don't have the energy to defend John Kerry's IWR vote anymore. I don't even have the strength to try to fake like I care anymore.
Howard Dean is the nominee...fine. He's not, that's fine too.
John Kerry is the nominee...fine. He's not, that's fine too.
Wesley Clark, John Edwards, Dick Gephardt, Joe Lieberman.
Whatever.
We talk about this issue and that issue. We break things down into their smallest components and try to analyze the way things are going to play out.
And it's all pointless, really.
We are the educated voters. We know the issues. We know the candidates. We know the crooks and swindlers and those who we can trust.
And in the end, every single vote we cast, and every single vote we help cast by working for a campaign, will ultimately be undone by some bumpkin who casts their vote for Bush because they like the way he looks on tv. Or likes how religious he is. Or likes how he's just a nice good 'ol boy.
And every time we wring our hands over something Bush has done. OR every time we jump for joy over every drop in poll numbers. It means little because the election will be decided in the week prior to folks going to the polls.
And once they do, it'll be a measure of Bush - not the Democrat. Bush is such a polarizing figure it will come down to how many people dislike him, and not how many people like our nominee, that will determine the 2004 election.
So knowing this, it's hard for me to get excited about anything that's happening now. We've got a year to go before all this means anything.
So Chris Matthews can yammer on, because he doesn't know anything. And all the punants can continue to praise Bush, because they're paid to do that sort of thing. And we will continue to scream back and forth at eachother. A mental kabuki dance designed to pump up our candidate and our make us feel like we have the inside track on what's going to happen a few months from now.
When we're all just stumbling in the dark because we're all clueless as to how this is gonna turn out.
But here's a semi-obvious hint. In a two-party system, we'll either finish first or second.
And that, my friends, is about as close to political certainty as it gets.
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