All Politics Is Loco, Parte VIII

According to some elderly guys at one of the local restaurants, Obama already has the Presidental race all sewn up. Personally I won't believe that till next Wednesday but when even people who aren't Obama fans start talking as if his victory was a sure thing, I can't help but wonder.

Anyway, I'll be glad when this Presidential race is over. This post made me rather proud to be an American. This post about the recent booing of John McCain by his own supporters didn't make me feel so proud (I keep thinking Americans should be better than that and unfortunately, many of my fellow Americans are not) and this post -- which argued that people who merely vote for the wrong political candidate are much worse than a Russian dictator who murdered millions -- is just ridiculous.

I guess if I was smart, I would have taken advantage of early voting but I didn't. I guess I like to live dangerously.

Anyway, I discovered at a recent family gathering that I'm one of the few people left in my family who will be voting Democratic this November. Since my mother is a former Kennedy Democrat who once voted for McGovern and since my favorite cousin once described the Democratic Party in the late 1980s as "our" party -- implying that voting Democratic was a tradition for both my family and hers -- this makes me sad. But it doesn't surprise me. My mother has talked for years of her disillusionment with the Democratic Party and since she once admitted that she voted against Clinton in the 1990s because he supported defense cuts -- and because her employer was dependent on defense contracts -- I really didn't think it was too realistic to expect her to change her mind.

I was surprised by my one sibling's enthusiasm for Sarah Palin -- apparently he thinks she's a hottie -- and even more by one out-of-state cousin's antipathy toward Ms. Palin. I haven't had the chance to discuss with my cousin her reasons for hating Ms. Palin but my sibling assured me that she was most vocal about it in their online correspondence.

Anyway, I don't expect Obama to solve all our problems if he gets elected and indeed, I suspect the election will be a lot closer than most people are predicting. I don't really see McCain pulling an upset but then there was a time back in January when he didn't seem likely to even get the nomination. So who knows?

I'm keeping my fingers crossed either way.