Let The People Speak...It's More Interesting

I apologize to my loyal readers for the prolonged absence of new content. The reasons? Well, first, I've working long hours at a new job. Second, I have been bored to tears by the rut this election has fallen into.

For those of you who have been following the gestation of this blog, you'll remember that I wanted to offer a non-pundit approach to politics; a space for an informed citizenry to speak their minds. I counted myself in that group. The interminable run-up to the Pennsylvania primary has reinforced my determination to continue offering this content.

Now, I don't want to contribute to the prevailing practice of beating dead horses and jumping on negative bandwagons. Since the ABC debate, enough has been made of the press's overkill of the less substantive aspects of this race. The media is often an easy target when things get slow and unnattractive. For the record, I appreciate the political media. I depend on solid information (and opinion) from diverse sources like the Wall Street Journal, Politico and MSNBC. I check in on Fox News and CNN. I absolutely love XM Radio's Potus '08. I offer much of this content to you, my readers, when it provides information that it is truly germane to the proceedings. But lately, that hasn't been the case.

The reason is clear: the point of an election is to let the people speak. And when we have 6 weeks between primaries, nothing but ugliness is revealed-- about the candidates, about the media, even about us, the voters. That's where we are now. I mean, here's an interesting editorial from The WSJ, I suppose. But, in addition to being the ten thousandth piece on Barack Obama's 'bitter' comments, it really distorts the basic point of his comments. And I would ask: if most people think that Obama's statements were not wholly true, why are we so obsessed by them? Methinks we doth protest too much. If someone says I'm Chinese, and I know I'm not, I shrug my shoulders and move on. I don't spend two weeks trying to prove I'm not.

The point is, the longer we have to wait for the people to speak, the more that vacuum is filled with chatter. Chatter that increasingly offers more speculation than fact. Here's another piece on Obama, from Michael Hirsh of Newsweek. He's entitled to his opinion, but whether or not Obama is like Kerry in '04 will be revealed in the campaign. And we need real contests to determine that.

Similarly, watching John McCain try to remain relevant without an opponent is a sure cure for insomnia. Again, in the absence of a real contest with empirical results, the vacuum is being filled with idle chatter. Consider this revived conversation about (sigh) McCain's temper. On the other hand, he's doing well with conservatives...in this piece.

And then there was the debate. But we don't need to go there. It's been covered ad nauseum. I simply say: Bring on Tuesday, let's count some votes in Pennsylvania. Let the numbers reveal how people really reacted to Obama's comments, or Hillary's negative attacks or whatever. Let's bring some reality back to this very real process of Democracy--and then we'll have something interesting to talk about.