I hate politics

Sometimes I want to smack Garrison Keillor on the back of the head. (Gently—he’s not as young as he used to be.) And sometimes I want to shake his hand. Today I’m feeling kindly disposed to him:

People have lots of questions about Barack Obama and that’s as it should be. The man inspires curiosity. The problem for McCain is that Barack explains himself so well. Those people jamming basketball arenas aren’t going there to look at his shoes. If you listen to the man speak, you’re likely to vote for him. If you listen to McCain, you’re reminded of your great-uncle Elmer hashing over the injustice of MacArthur getting canned by Harry Truman. Who cares?

McCain’s problem is definitely not that he’s an unknown quantity. His quantity is all too known. We don’t have to worry about whether he’s telling the truth about what he’ll do as president. We know what he’ll do, and we know it won’t help because it’s all the same stuff that the current resident has used to create all his most tragically spectacular failures.

There are two things about this election season that I hate. One is that I’m spending too much time thinking about politics because I feel like I have to out of self defense. Another is that somewhere down the line I am going to end up hating someone for making me feel hopeful.

I think Sting was right. There is no political solution. Because our probolems are not political.

Just a thought

Retail Sales At Weakest Point In 5 Months – CBS News

Maybe this is because some of us are still paying off the crap we bought five months ago.

Why, I never!

Terry M. Neal at The Root has an unusually sensible observation:

Interestingly, calling someone a racist has become a worse offense than actually being one. And thus the media will allow McCain and his defenders to have it both ways—play to racial sensitivities and express mock horror than anyone would have the audacity to question their motives.

Sometimes it seems like the last eight years have been nothing but a long orchestrated campaign to discourage people from questioning authority. And these days “authority” can mean the people in charge, or it can mean simply anybody who’s further up the economic slope than you are.