Primarily Politics

It's only a day away until New Hampshire votes for the next potential president of the United States.    I remember when I worked in Manchester and you couldn't walk down the street without being accosted by someone with a microphone and a camera asking you who you were going to vote for.  Satellite trucks were parked up and down Main St., and it was kind of cool.

But like all things that were generally out of hand to begin with, this particular N.H. tradition has gone bonkers.

Today on Good Morning America Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos were broadcasting out of a small WMUR studio overlooking City Hall in downtown Manchester.  I know how large the square is, and there were perhaps 50 people, tops, standing around with their signs screaming.  Diane went out to stand amongst "the mob" as she was implying, holding her fingers to her ears in a mock show of "oh this is so loud I can't stand it."

It was ridiculous.  Clearly they were being told to scream as loud as they could and shake their signs.  Some director was running about trying to create something that wasn't.

In N.H. most people don't say who they are going to vote for just because ... that's how we are.  We're certainly not going to give it up to some person carrying a microphone and we may not even tell friends.  Politics can be a very personal issue -- much like religion -- it can be divisive, it can be volatile, it can make you look at someone differently.  You don't usually see a ton of political signs in front of people's houses either.  I've gone by someone's house, seen their sign,  and thought "really?  And I thought they were normal."  It can be a sign of who they are behind closed doors!   I think when someone actually puts a sign out, they are making an enormous statement.  They believe in this candidate enough to expose themselves!

We have to remember that politics is 99.9 percent theater.  These people go out and act and say what they have been told to say and how to act.  They hire campaign directors, but they no longer run the show -- now it's about marketing and polls.  And morning news shows pretending that there are mobs of rabid would-be-voters trying to get on camera for a few brief seconds to promote Hilary or Obama.  I wonder if any of those people were even from New Hampshire!

Seriously!

Then George and Diane chatted about their breakfast at the "diner."  Do you know that Diane actually even had some "diner french fries" at the diner?  They discussed how you can run into just about anyone at the "diner."  For crying out loud, it's not a diner, it's a restaurant.  Some hole-in-the-wall restaurant that for some reason the media has focused on as their "down home diner."  I hate how they (media) are always trying to portray things as they just so ARE NOT.   If they cheat on the minor details, what are they doing with the major ones?  They can't be trusted!

I know it's a small thing, but there was no mob and the Merrimack Restaurant is not a diner where locals hang out.  It's a restaurant where the media has decided to keep returning to because they have no creativity!  

And just like the media intends, I am getting bogged down in minutia!  

So now I will tell you about something else that occurred this morning while I was steaming at Diane and George.  I felt a stirring ... of excitement!  I genuinely CARE about who wins tomorrow.  I am anxious to see what happens, I am not filled with any traces of apathy ... I really care!  And even a year from now (or 397 days according to my Out of Office countdown of GWB) I am excited that the United States of America might actually return to a true democracy, where the Constitution is actually adhered to instead of ignored and twisted to fit the agenda of a true fanatic

Yes!  I believe George Bush is a fanatic.  Whatever his agenda is -- and I believe it is oil -- he has undermined this country time and again, forcing us into a war and then demanding we support the troops.    And so on.  For an incredibly great article on this (and he says it with more eloquence than I) go to Why I Believe Bush Must Go,  by George McGovern.  

But here's the beauty of our downtrodden Constitution -- there is no allowance for true dictators because they all must go after two terms (even if they didn't win the second term, but fine, we won't go there.)  At least ... GWB hasn't done away with that ... yet!