Presidential Race

While I think it is a good thing for the country that both McCain and Obama are in general pragmatic non-ideological centrists, the idea that this campaign would be waged at a level of civility unseen in Presidential races for decades was unfounded. The idea that Obama is 'post-partisan' is both ludicrous and unsubstantial and McCain has lost his formerly significant upper hand in the area of honor, moderation, and experience.

The election in reality is between independent voters in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, & Virginia; because of the current political alignments and the electoral college, nowhere else matters... at all. The only thing the elimination of the electoral college would be is eliminating campaigning in more rural parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, & Virginia and increasing campaigning in the outer-ring suburbs more cities ...inner-ring suburbs (i.e. Chestnut Hill, Bethesda, Westchester) are unlikely to vote for Republicans anytime soon.

Most activists, TV talking heads, both campaigns but particularly the McCain campaign, and the general public seem oblivious to the fact that the people who decide this election are people in those four eastern well-populated states who mainly live in outer-ring suburbs and are independent because they don't like things about both the Republican and Democratic parties. If you don't buy the full platform of either party, nothing alienates you more than partisan rancor and mindless resuscitation of talking points. On the bright side both McCain and Obama had the highest support of independants versus their opponents in their respective primaries... Obama uses less anti-corporate rhetoric than Kerry did and McCain, while appealing to jingoism, nevertheless avoids the tone and verbage Bush used to defend the Iraq War while campaigning in '04.

...I ran across this quote again, I remember running across it before... Bruce Alger was the first non-Reconstruction Republican Congressman from Texas elected to more than one term. He served from 1955 to 1965, leaving well before the Republican Party realigned itself and gained substantial support in the South (Strom Thurmond switched parties they year Algers lost reelection, Jesse Helms switched parties in 1970, and Texas's congressional delegation had more Democrats until the 109th Congress in 2005.

Anyway, for those possibly optimistic or depressed about any upcoming political developments, here's a quote:

At the turn of new year in 1958, Bruce Alger was asked by Time Magazine about the upcoming second session of the 85th Democratic Congress, he responded:

"I foresee bitterness and hatefulness. . . . We are going to squabble and fight and make the world think we hate each other and that we can't solve our problems. We are going to have bigger and bigger budgets, higher taxes, more government spending at home and abroad, and more inflation accompanied by deficit financing. Happy New Year!"