Gilbert's Party Barn
Watching the election these days is like trying to watch a ping pong match. The ball is spinning back and forth faster than I can keep track of it and I'm pretty sure it'll just get faster at least until the election on Novembe 2nd. Watching the polls, listening to the commentators in their shark like frenzy and somehow trying to gather enough information to see how things are really going. It's a given that the media will do what it always does in elections of this magnitude - they'll spin it and twist it and make it seem like it's a neck and neck, too close to call event that we must all tune into every minute of every day in order to catch that nuance, that slight change of direction that will give us what we all want - a clue as to what will happen before it happens. Ford and Carter, Carter and Reagan, Reagan and Mondale - all of them were reported as being neck and neck, too close to call as the date of the election came up. In reality it was rarely the case and there followed the usual reports of self reflection wondering 'how did we get it so wrong?' If it's the same here then (and there is no reason to think that it isn't) just going by that historical behavior of the media I'd say Bush wins going away.

The news and the way the news is slanted these days reminds me of way back in the day listening with fascination the shortwave radio broadcasts of Radio Moscow. I'd listen to the Radio Moscow news reports and hear things that were directly opposite to the news I would hear through the news sources I had come to know. Walter Cronkite and the others seemed to be impartial and honest and being no idiot I would gauge the various news reports and commentary and opinions I would get from the differrent sides. I knew the political situation and the death struggle that was going on in the world and I knew it was completely serious. It gave me a critical eye and ear when listening to the news. I knew for a fact that some people giving me the news weren't being truthful and honest and had their own agendas. This training has given me a cynical viewpoint that is backed up with the sad reality of the state of our ability to get news.

I watch CBS and the New York Times trying to run a gotcha against Bush the day before the election. I see 'news' people lining up on each side to scream at each other and to us that this is true or that is true. I hear people on the same side of an argument saying the exact same thing - spouting 'talking points' rather than giving their honest thought out opinions and thoughts. It's all yelling and shouting and nothing gets discussed and examined. Think in soundbites, make your decisions based on who loves America more than the other and remember that your opinion is based on hearing the ten second sentences on the matter that have been drilled at you time after time again. Whoever has the best soundbite or commercial wins. Not who is best, who has the best plan or ideas to help make things better. It's all crap.