A Little Baseball in my Politics

I said that I would be posting a political blog soon, but I've since lost some steam. However, I will try to write a little of what I had previously planned. Have you been paying attention to the polls? I have to admit that I am a political junkie and Presidential election cycles are like heroin. From the beginning it seemed as though Hillary and to a certain extent Rudy had their respective nominations locked up. Since that time both have taken great falls in the polls. There are various explanations for the rise of some candidates and to the fall of others, but it comes down to this simple fact, the American voter doesn't know what the hell he or she wants. We are confused and quite frankly, a little scared. Despite the fact that we haven't had an attack since 9/11, we live in the most uncertain times since we were able to pull ourselves out of Vietnam. We know this election is an important one, especially since some of us think that we royally screwed up the last two.

I think this is why Clinton and Rudy serged ahead so quickly. When you are so uncertain about a difficult decision, you tend to latch on to what is familiar and safe. Both of those candidates permeate our national consciousness and we couldn't help but latch on to them like a drowning former cruise boat traveler who was thrown a life vest as the ship pulled away and the crew convinced the other passengers that we never existed. However, familiarity breeds contempt and we soon realized that both of the front runners, while familiar old faces, represented old solutions that most of us are tired of seeing trotted out year after year. So we have slowly looked elsewhere and with the help of some guides (Oprah, conservative Christians) we have found new options that might not be that bad.

For my part I really hope that my options are some candidates that I won't reject right away. I'm not going to vote for Hillary, or Huckabee, or Romney, or any of the candidates that hasn't a legitimate shot. (Although, Ron Paul, who is CRAZY, might tempt me...no he's too crazy.) I want to believe that Obama is my generation's JFK, but I'm afraid to look any closer as he might not live up to such lofty expectations. I also fear for our first black candidate for president, there are a lot of whack jobs out there. I've always liked McCain, but until recently it doesn't seem as though he has a shot. If those two go up against each other, it will be be tough choice for me. I like Thompson, but I think I've made it clear that he doesn't have the political will to get the nomination. Rudy is Rudy, he's okay, but I can't get past the fact that he was a mayor and his record is mixed at best.

On a completely different note, the Mitchell Report came out and boy howdy did it create a stir. Maybe when I have more energy and my dog isn't whining to go for a walk I will put more effort into this topic, but let me just say this: Isn't it weird that media types talk about this story incessantly, but then claim that the general public doesn't care if our players are juiced out of their minds? I think they reason they do that is to excuse them of their ineptitude to really crack this story. Except for one or two exceptions, no one in the media has had the "All the President's Men" story that has cracked this wide open and proved guilt. This is a direct result of the media turning a blind eye to the problem when baseball was making a huge comeback as a direct result of players taking 'roids. Look, we care, but we also know that right now there isn't much we can do about it. So, the media keeps wringing its hands and instead of just admitting that they missed this awhile ago they have strong prejudices about who to go after (Bonds vs. Clemens) and don't want the general public to have a nuanced opinion about the subject. For my part, wipe out the last 15 years of records and let's start over.

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Listening to: The Beatles - Get Back
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Listening to: Miles Davis - Miles Runs The Voodoo Down
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Listening to: The Bad Plus - 1980 World Champion
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Listening to: The Beta Band - Push It Out
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