De-electifying

It's been a great election primary for political junkies. I can't remember a better one in terms of drama on the campaign trail. But in my mind, the primaries are over. Oh sure, the press will try to make the race still seem alive to maintain an audience, but we have our two candidates, Obama and McCain. Stick the primaries with a fork; they are done.

And now I'm de-electifying. I'm not looking at the CNN website anymore. I'm not obsessing about the latest word said from candidate x, y or z. I'm not watching McNeil-Lehrer or whatever they call that PBS news show nowadays now that one of them - I don't even know which one - left or died and went to heaven. I'm done worried about the election until the conventions.

Plus I need some time to get used to the idea of volunteering for Obama. He isn't my kind of candidate. There's too much sizzle and not enough steak. They say that seeing Obama is like going to a rock concert. Fine. The last time I paid for a rock concert ticket was over thirty years ago. I don't like them. Yes, I'm a curmudgeon. It isn't anything new. I was one when I was 12, too.

For me, Obama is lousy on details. He doesn't do his homework and when he makes specific statements is often off base. He's like one of those lazy real bright kids I used to teach in college. He gets by on smarts and bullshit. I dislike candidates like that. But despite my reservations about Obama, he's likely going to be a better president than what the Republicans are offering. So I'll volunteer for him. I'll suck it up and do it.

I'll have to deal with those loony glazed-eyed, hero worshipping Obamies, too. Obama is something new under the sun. He's America's first candidate as pop culture star. There was none of that in the Clinton campaign that's for sure. But I'm a grown man. I can handle it.

Come next January, I worry that Obama will be like Carter, a nice guy who screws up because he's too naive and ends up doing a lousy job. The hard right is not going to suddenly embrace this guy simply because he's nice. It's been a cornerstone of Obama's campaign that somehow - although he has no track record of doing so - he can build bridges across the left-right political divide and we'll all be one big happy family. Baloney.

Instead it's certain to be almost like Bill Clinton all over again. Fox News and all the right wing loonies will savage Obama every friggen day in the press. One good thing is that there is no longer an Office of Independent Council to stir the pot; the Republicans abused that post to such a degree with Kenneth Starr that it was disbanded by Congress. Another thing that has changed for the better is that unlike when the right wing media attack machine was fresh, people have become very suspicious of the truthfulness of its message.

Whenever Obama is attacked, I've noticed he has this deer in the headlights look. He looks personally hurt, as if no one has ever insulted him before. I don't think he has the cajones to stand up to the inevitable daily right wing siege once he's in office.

I hope that I'm wrong and that he actually will be an effective president.

I used to think that Carter was the worst president of my lifetime. Until George W. Bush came along, I thought that a Republican who knows how to get things done as president was probably better than a Democrat that I agreed with politically but was incompetent. But now that we've had Bush, I've rethought that completely. Carter was incompetent, sure. He couldn't get Congress to do anything. But Bush has been able to move Congress quite effectively (the one area of competence he's shown); and the result has been much, much worse than the problems caused by Carter's complete incompetence.

I'm sticking with my Democrats this election. Obama may or may not be much, but we have nowhere to go but up.