Odds & Sods #60: Dog Days Edition

Aug 11th, 2008 | By Ara Rubyan | Category: Lead Article, Odds & Sods

The CW says we’re in the dog days of August. No one is paying attention to anything important. Everyone has tuned out the campaign and tuned in the Olympics. If that describes you then maybe you watched the opening ceremonies in Beijing — or as I like to think of it: EPCOT meets Cirque du Soleil Busby Berkley on acid X 1.3 billion. What a show! Words cannot do it justice. If someone is really smart, they’ll sell the DVD. It is three hours of pure entertainment. [Note: Even the appearance of the Blue Screen of Death high atop the Bird's Nest added a tangy zest to the proceedings.]

Since I like to write about politics, I have to mention a couple of things that caught my attention this morning. One: the Clinton campaign’s Howard Wolfson says Edwards’ coverup of his affair cost Clinton the nomination. That may be (then again Nate Silver demolishes Wolfson’s argument), and/but I think it is more believable that the revelation of Edwards’ affair cost Clinton the VP slot. After all, why would Obama want to tempt fate (and the Republican attack machine) one more time by picking a Clinton — any Clinton — to run on the national ticket? One charming, southern, politician-philanderer is quite enough for this election cycle, thankyouverymuch.

Speaking of the campaign, there is so much crap flying around — the blizzard of attack ads from the McCain camp, alone, is enough to blot out the sun — that it would be best to stay focused on one thing: that things are pretty seriously on the wrong track and it is McCain that is part of the same, old, tired, crowd that got us into this mess in the first place.
Oh, they’ll try to distract you, fool you, enrage you, and scare you about Obama, but it’s all part of an effort to get you to vote for the status quo. They have to — it is the only way they can stay on top.
So if you’re tired of the same old stuff, vote Democratic. Because if you keep doing what you’ve been doing, you’ll keep getting what you’ve been getting. Don’t fall for it again — not this time. Throw the rascals out.