Thursday, April 17, 2008

No, I haven’t been posting a lot lately

Seems little point. I’ve been reading pro-Clinton anti-Obama blogs, and pro-Obama anti-Clinton blogs, and pro-McCain anti-Democrat blogs, and honestly, there’s nothing to write about.

My attitude toward McCain is still oddly respectful—like my attitude was toward my grandfather: he may have had some old-fashioned, impractical ideas, and he may be positively loony on some others, but I still found him likable and I respected him.

But then, I wouldn’t have wanted him to be President.

The constant poking the Clinton camp is doing at the Obama camp is tiresome, and there’s not much to say about that, either. I’m not sure it will damage the Democratic chances for victory in November, but it’s certainly befuddling. She is apparently willing to destroy any chance of a joint ticket, and I don’t believe she will get the Democratic nomination at this point. While anything seems possible at this point in the race, it does seem that she is angering more and more Democrats with the negative attacks on Obama—and his reaction has simply been to shrug it off, or poke back good-naturedly, which is a brilliant tactic.

There was another Clinton-Obama debate last night, but I couldn’t bring myself to watch it, mostly because I had no faith whatsoever that the moderators (George Stephanopoulos, who should have recused himself because of his close relationship to the Clintons, and the formerly respectable Charlie Gibson) would pull the debate to any actual issues. As it happens, looking over the reports this morning, I was right: Tom Shales of the Washington Post talked of their “shoddy, despicable performances,” and pointed out that the vast majority of the first half of the debate “dwelled entirely on specious and gossipy trivia.”

In years past, I watched presidential debates fairly regularly—but no more. The decline of the news media has gone beyond appalling, and is heading into territory better described by words like “anguish,” “deranged” and “mucus.” I feel bad for the candidates these days, being faced with such morons.

Fortunately, for the first time, YouTube and other such websites are becoming an excellent avenue for the candidates to reach people. The Obama campaign and its supporters have this down to an artform in a way that the other candidates do not, and I think we’re seeing a minor revolution in how campaigns are conducted. Most candidates are not going to know how to cope with the Web generation, and many will revile it, because legislative cockroaches are never going to enjoy the light of day. But it could potentially be a very positive change.

Time will tell, though.

So again: I’m not writing mostly because nothing really seems to be happening. Perhaps that will change after the Pennsylvania primary, but I doubt it. I suspect that Clinton will decide to stay in all the way to the convention at this point. That’s her right, no matter what my opinion on it.

Wake me up when something does happen, okay?