'Tis the season!

I decorated my house and noticed that right after I did so, three neighbors across the street all decided to decorate too! This afternoon I walked around the neighborhood to see if others had gotten as caught up in the season as I and my neighbors had. The day is approaching and I was curious as to who else might have gotten off to a late start on decorating. And, yes, I wanted to see how scared I should be.

Not too scary. There were only a few Rmoney signs!

HA! I tricked you! You thought I was writing about Halloween! BOO!

Really, it's fairly telling. The three neighbors across the street did put their Rmoney signs out right after the Ferrerman 'Obama' sign went out in the front yard. So, I started it. They were probably going to vote for Rmoney anyway and weren't waiting to do the opposite of Ferrerman but, ya never know. But, other folks in the extended neighborhood don't know Ferrerman and probably didn't follow my lead, pro or con. In my travels today, I didn't see a lot of either candidate's signs. I think there were definitely a lot more in '08.

I don't see that as apathy. At least in this 'burb, I think people are confused. Politics will confuse the shit out of you if you don't know much about it. It'll confuse the shit out of you if you know too much as well. You can hear so much bad about Obama (or any candidate) and neither know or care if it's true. People are doing pretty well here and might be thinking this one is no big deal, at least not the big deal it was in '08 after eight years of the Bush carnage. There was "Hope and Change" promised by a wonderful young man from Chicago and, the reality is, he delivered. He delivered against seemingly insurmountable odds. A lesser man would have picked a ball o' fluff from Alaska and phoned in his candidacy. An even lesser man is currently trying to get elected telling lies and promising to undo absofuckinglutely everything Obama has done.

I can see how more mainstream republicans might not be terribly excited about their candidate this time around. Never minding what I think about him, it doesn't seem that they like him. If these people were afraid of the black man four years ago, they're not afraid of him now. He's worked out pretty good.  Nor are they excited by the billionaire who endeavours to inexplicably shake the Etch A Sketch clean by wiping out the last four years and starting over. You seriously have to ask yourself, "Why?"

It's only "job-killing Obamacare" if you're a republican congressman or an idiot troll who posts on Topix. Thirty million more people cannot be denied healthcare now. It's a big fucking deal, to borrow a phrase. Same with ending the war in Iraq if you're in either of those camps. If you think that Obama thinks he personally killed Bin Laden and then spiked the ball and did a political dance about it- like those black guys do in football...then you're in those camps. One MILLION jobs were saved with his bailout of GM and Chrysler. That was one million jobs and the blood, sweat and tears LIVES that go along with them, at the height of the depth of the worst recession since The Great Depression. Another big, fucking deal. There were more. You get the idea.

Obviously, people on Topix don't. Mittens sounds like he wants to be president of them although, in reality, he wouldn't walk across the street to give them a haircut or try and recruit them to his church. He's only courting their vote because- gosh darnit- they're allowed to vote. He doesn't care about them. They are not in his percentage whether they are the 47% or the 53%. They are not the one percent. Neither are my neighbors, immediate or extended, no matter how well they are doing. If you're part of the Dow crowd, you must notice that it's going great despite the Muslim communist leading the country with his fascist/socialist healthcare and his being OK with gay folks dying for their country. So, why change horses in mid-stream?

I don't think this election is as close as the polls and pundits say it is. Sure, the idiots in Washington and the idiots on Topix hate Obama and have every reason under the sun to want him gone. But, they were like that before he got elected so, I sense a pattern. Polls mean nothing but what pollsters want them to mean. It's old school politics to keep your candidate in the game, by keeping your voters interested. In this case, believing  it's close will also inspire Obama fans to vote. I believe they will. There may be apathy in the suburban front yards this time around but, I think people will turn out to vote and make the right choice. It's still a big fucking deal.

Oh- there seemed to be more Halloween displays than in previous years. That might mean something too.

And my Obama sign? The one that inspired the neighbors to get politically active? It blew away!

Or some rat bastard republican stole it....