The Real Place for Politics

It's being called the most important election in recent US history, at least by those in the running. While president George W. Bush has been president I have accomplished many things. 12 year old molars, the first kiss in the back of a greasy movie theater where you suddenly have a popcorn and Slurpee tongue reaching down your throat, graduating from training bras and the discovery of the thong, one week of AP physics, a sober prom, a short film, defeating Costa Rican cockroaches, the blog. The list goes on. On the top of this list though, is realizing that the rapidly changing world in which we live will never be the same as it was during my childhood of the 1990s. I have often heard it said that my generation, generation Y, is indifferent to the world outside of our cell phones, Facebooks, and iPods. I would like to take a brief moment to say that this is not entirely true: if the economy crashes and the cost of power becomes so extreme that we can't recharge our iPods and connect to the Internet to access our Facebooks...I think you'll find that a lot of my fellow generation Yers will be at the forefront of political action and agenda.

This week there was one of the most highly anticipated Vice Presidential debates of all time in which 70 million people tuned in to watch. Republican Governor, Sarah Palin, and Democrat Joe Biden took the stage for an hour and a half of uninterrupted political discussion...I mean debate. Why did so many people decide to spend their Thursday night watching politics instead of The Office? Well, I think it was for the same reason that people enjoy watching NASCAR races or Project Runway. There's always that possibility that someone is going to go into a tailspin and end up on an ambulance for more than just a bruised ego. I know that when I turned on my TV, I was awaiting Sarah Palin's next big verbal tailspin as much as I was hoping for Joe Biden to lose his cool and tell Ms. Palin to get off the stage. Well, like so many other Americans, I have to say that I was a little disappointed by the lack of any dramatic or embarrassing episodes.

Sarah Palin gave us an hour and a half of well rehearsed folksy charm *wink* and Joe Biden gave us straightforward, fact based, practiced politician style prose. I think while it's safe to say that Biden easilly came out on top, it was interesting to hear Palin twist her answers into something relating to her expertise in energy policy and the overall mavericky nature of both herself and John McCain. Biden reminded us that he is able to count to at least two, and he also reinforced McCain's history of deregulation and the current financial crisis which, as we all know, McCain was a little slow to get on board with ("Still, the fundamentals of our economy are strong!").

I want to call special attention to a few facts that Sarah Palin seemed to find it necessary change...or else was just unaware when she was speaking incorrectly. As far as I know, she beat out Biden on the creation of factual fallacies. (However I will be the first to admit that I pay more attention to news sources that are more likely to talk about Sarah Palin's blunders than Joe Biden's --- at least I am able to name which news sources I utilize, and no, it's not "All of them." They include: The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Democracy Now, NPR, BBC, CNN, Fox, MSNBC.) I think I'll go Biden style and number my responses to this. 1) The troop levels in Iraq are not lower than they were before the surge. 2) Barack Obama did not vote to raise taxes for people making $42,000 a year or more. 3) The General in Afghanistan is David McKiernan not Civil War General George McClellan. 4) McCain does not, in fact, want to allow bankruptcy judges rewrite mortgages.

Phew. Although I think there were a few more moments to be commented on, I'll leave it at that. Y'know, it's not that I can say I personally dislike Sarah Palin. I've never met her and it would be presumptuous of me to assume that she and I would not get along. In fact, as long as we agreed to not discuss politics, I'm sure she could teach me a few things about decapitating moose. What I can say though, is that John McCain has given me a very serious reason to question his ability to make sound decisions by placing this self-proclaimed pit bull with lipstick hockey-mom a heartbeat away from that big chair in the Oval Office. I'm not even sure if I would want this woman running my child's PTA, especially if she were to tell my daughter that she had to pay for her own rape kit in a medical examination.

More to come on that $700 billion bailout when this full-time student with a part-time job has made more time for this full-time hobby -- because I, unlike some politicians we all know, can walk and chew gum...at the same time.