“The colleague had been touring the young democracies of Eastern Europe during the American election, and he found it wasn’t so much Barack Obama that immediately knocked out observers but Mr. McCain’s concession speech. This is the first American transfer of power they’d seen in eight years, and they couldn’t get over the peacefulness and grace with which Mr. McCain accepted the people’s verdict. “It really impressed them,” the colleague told Mr. McCain, and later me. It gave them a template, a guide to how the older democracies do it. When he told me of this, I remembered the observation of a journalist who had covered Russia. The Russian newspapers had generally played down Mr. Obama’s victory, she said, because it got in the way of the establishment line: that the corrupt American democracy is composed of two warring family machines that have the system wired and controlled with the help of their corporate oligarch cronies. It’s not a real democracy but a pretend democracy, and a hypocritical one. This helps the Russians rationalize and excuse their infirm hold on democratic ways and manners. And then the black man from Chicago with no longtime machine or money is elected . . .
So the Russian press muted its coverage. Mr. Obama’s victory upset their story line. They have to think up a new one now. They will.”
with election day only 4 weeks away from yesterday, it’s time to get your political ducks in a row. personal politics tend to change and you might be confused where you stand on the political spectrum. doesn’t the old adage go: if you’re a young republican you have no heart, if you’re an old democrat you have no brain. might not be too bad an idea to head over to politicalcompass.org to take their quick test. for the record: i’m an economic -1.88, social 0.56.
great! now that we have proof that you’re a communist, let’s watch some computer! hulu.com has the presidential debates, the most recent of which is here. don’t have an hour and a half to watch political finger pointing and need a quicker fix? google labs has come up with “In Quotes” which you can go to by clicking here. basically it’s a search tool that compares quotes from both presidential candidates on selected issues. once you’ve hit the “spin” to rotate quotes a couple of times, you may come to the same conclusion as i did. both candidates, in their own way, sound ridiculous in quotes.
speaking of spin, just yesterday i read an AP headline that read “mccain linked to group in iran-contra affair“, while the article itself ended inconclusively. i want my 5 minutes back, pete yost. you should be ashamed of using your headline spin to title something most readers won’t sit through. to be fair, one of my daily reads did their fair share of headline spin tying obama to a left-wing extremist. i suggest avoiding some of the smear going around, but i’d also suggest heading over to factcheck.org and doing some research before making any firm conclusions.
sounds like a lot of work, huh? jobama or mcfey?!? that’s ok, you can let stereotypes and your demographics decide for you. are you from a blue state, and want to be hip and fit in with everyone else? love a dreamer with charisma that looks cool smoking, even though some may think him the anti-christ? vote obama. pardon my cynicism, but i’ve not heard an informed argument of why i should vote for obama that isn’t based of the fact that he is not mcstain or gdubya. from a red state or want to be cool by not thinking what the cool kids think? love an old-school guy with maverick ways hocking inappropriate remarks.. or fear excommunication from your church for voting democrat? vote mccain. oh, by the way… others think him the anti-christ too. same principal applies: voting for mccain because he’s NOT obama or because the bible belt is mostly republican, probably not the best reasoning for your vote.
so you know what… don’t vote…
… in California, october 20th is the deadline to register to vote. if you’re not going to vote… you’re lame. granted, if you’re an american citizen it is also YOUR RIGHT NOT TO VOTE. exercising that right, however, tells me you don’t care, and again, that you’re lame.  so don’t vote.  unfortunately, this election season we may be picking the lesser of two evils, but there are other things on the ticket besides the president, even if you’re abstaining. seriously, if THAT guy gets elected, i’m going to cry.