President-Elect Obama

Woo-hoo! I was so relieved that he won, and by such a large margin. The celebrations since Tuesday have been very moving, and it is indeed a wonderful milestone. Some day in the future I hope we will pass other milestones, like the first female president, the first Native American president, the first gay president, the first athiest president, the first Muslim president, the first disabled president who openly admits it unlike FDR, etc. But only if those people are the right candidates for their time, of course. They must be qualified first, and then I must agree with their policies too, before I'd vote for them. Like, no way would I blindly vote for Kay Bailey Hutchinson or Condoleezza Rice, just 'cause I'm a woman. And we must all remember that we didn't elect Obama just to have a national feel-good moment to "erase" slavery. We're still in deep trouble, and we still need to stay very involved in government; apathy and inattention will get us nowhere in overcoming our multiple crises.

Joe the Plumber is no Bud Johnson

I don't get Joe the Plumber. Sometimes he campaigns for McCain; sometimes he doesn't show up. Sometimes he admits that his taxes would be lower under Obama; sometimes he attacks Obama's patriotism. Sometimes he says he doesn't want to be in the spotlight, but then he hires a publicist to get some kind of book or music record deal. He's almost as erratic as McCain's campaign. Why does he think we're interested in him? Why do the Republican base get excited about pushing his supposed "everyman" "small business guy" narrative? To me, the whole Wurzelbacher saga is like a manufactured and botched attempt at creating a real life Bud Johnson.

Who's Bud Johnson? He's the swing voter in the movie Swing Vote. Spoilers for the movie below.