I have been bouncing back and forth between being highly interested in the race for the Democratic nomination and being bored and impatient with it. I have a few problems with each of the nominees but I like them both better than McCain and right at the moment I’m thinking, “Can we puh-leeease just get this part of it over with?”
I wonder how anyone can take all this sniping seriously. Clinton makes a claim that turns out to be not exactly (or not at all) true and her numbers go down and Obama’s go up. Obama says something that is perceived as “elitist” and his numbers go down and Clinton’s go up. Not to mention that fifteen percent of people polled still believe Obama is Muslim even after the big to-do over his pastor’s remarks. It’s all so silly. Can’t people see that it’s only politics and that it’s about as real as professional wrestling?
At this point I’m still leaning slightly toward Obama, admittedly almost entirely on the basis of personality and perceived integrity. I don’t think they differ a lot on the issues and it would be nice to have a president who is not embarrassing. That’s not to say that Senator Clinton would necessarily be embarrassing as President but I think there would be a high probability of some kind of scandal.
All you folks in Pennsylvania, do your country a favor and vote overwhelmingly for Obama so we can get on with the real contest.
April 22nd, 2008 - 10:21 am
Yes. Many times yes. You nailed some nails on the… hit some heads with nails, there. It’s sort of frightening (though not at all surprising) to think of the way opinions apparently shift over such inconsequential things. Maybe we can comfort ourselves thinking that the reason these trivial matters sway peoples’ opinions so much is that the two candidates in question are so close on all the bigger issues. But I can’t help but think it’ll be the same way when we’re down to the actual one-democrat vs. one-republican election. And I also wonder: if Obama gets elected, will there still be 15% of our citizens who think that we’ve elected a Muslim as president? It just seems to me that people that are responding to these polls saying that he’s a Muslim are either wholly irrational and uninformed, or intentionally obtuse.
Then again: I also lean in favor of Obama over Clinton for what are probably superficial, non-policy-related reasons.
April 22nd, 2008 - 1:44 pm
All I can think of is that some people don’t understand what it means to be Muslim and think it’s like a race or nationality. Maybe. Who knows?
April 22nd, 2008 - 2:12 pm
That actually makes a lot of sense. Consider a similar question, “Is Bob Whozit a Jew?” It’d be a more complicated question considering it’s never clear whether that question is asking about religion or about ethnicity. Perhaps also it’s just people who might say something like “if your father’s muslim, you’re muslim,” regardless of the religion of the person in question. Interesting.