Hold Yer Nose and Vote
Because I will be out of town on election day, I took an absentee ballot. At the end of last week, I decided it was time to vote, and after skipping the presidential race for the moment, I went down the list and made my selections. Then I slipped the ballot into the special envelope, sealed it, put a stamp on it, and put it off on a corner of my desk. At some point, it occurred to me that I hadn’t punched a presidential hole. I sat looking at the envelope, wondering whether I should open it and choose someone who might wind up in the White House on January 20th.
I had approached the presidential race thinking that Gore would be way ahead here in California, and that I could vote for Nader, whose politics are more aligned with mine than are any of the other candidates. Not that I like Nader; his public persona is unnecessarily anti-social. He’s a policy wonk who apparently lacks any real personality, at least one that is conducive to good politicking, and, should he be successful, management. For after all, that’s what the presidency is about isn’t it? The chief executive of the free world.
But Nader has been over-enjoying the role of a spoiler. Once reluctant to campaign, he has taken to the trail with an inelegant fervor, declaiming any difference between Gore and Bush. He also said that reproductive choice wasn’t really an issue. Horse hockey. Ole Ralph, the grandfather of the consumer movement, unsold me on voting for him.
That still didn’t mean that I was going to slit the envelope and vote for anyone. Gore is to be pitied for some of his mistakes, but he really has pushed the envelope. The "enhancements" as Bush calls them are ridiculous. What concerns me, however, is not the lies, which speak for his character quite plainly, but the fact that there is very little positive to say about The Wooden One.
What makes Gore look better -- but not good -- is his chief opponent, who clearly lacks the necessary intelligence to be president. He really doesn’t know what he’s talking about, and is trying to sell the notion that he knows where to find the information. A rock-rib Republican office holder I know said the other day that the "circle of advisors" was about the only reason he could grab onto to justify his voting for Bush-Lite.
This isn’t about the DUI, or even about Bush lying to the Dallas Morning News reporter. Bush really has a very shady past, though you won’t find it in the general media. His hands are dirty from a whole bunch of questionable deals, including an occasion where he conveniently sold his shares in a company which promptly tanked. It wasn’t one deal, either; it was a pattern. Same with Cheney, who decries big government, except when the State Department was helping his Halliburton Company secure lucrative foreign contracts.
I did open the envelope. I did punch Gore’s number. And I didn’t feel good about it. Will it make a difference? Not likely here in The Golden State.
And that’s SetonnoteS...I’m Tony Seton.