Chronicles of life... Political pondering

Every now and then I talk politics with a few friends.
I am far from being Miss Political Pro herself, but I usually am not too far off in left base.
With local, state and national elections back in November 2007, coming up July 15 and again in Nov. 4, my thoughts have yet to stray from politics. After all, I want to be an informed voter.
All these political happenings have made me ponder a few things.

On the national level
1. Will Hilary and Obama ever be friends? This has got to be one of the ugliest battles for a party nomination I’ve ever seen. I’m talking about uglier than store bought sin on a hot summer’s day. And since it’s store bought, you know it’s ugly, because that’s the cheap kind. Can’t we all just get along? Apparently, not when a party nomination is at stake.
2. Who would have thought a man of African descent would run for president so soon? Or a woman for that matter? I remember watching “Head of State” when it came out and thinking “ha that’s won’t be anytime soon.” Definitely was wrong.
3. Speaking of race and gender, I hate how in the early stages, and even now, of their campaigns some people were like, “Vote for Obama, because he’s black” or “Vote for Hilary because she’s a woman.” What happened to voting for a candidate because you support their issues? Politics are not just black and white, male and female. Then there was backlash if you wanted to vote for Hilary and were black and Obama if you were white. Not only is there freedom of speech, but freedom of voting choice.
4. I got to hand it to Hil, she’s not backing down, even as the race for the party nomination comes to a close. That’s what I call some persistence. I definitely can respect that as a reporter.
5.Is it just me, or has campaigning been going on for at least four years? This is ridiculous. Democrats need to get it together. I think there should be some type of time limit in place for how far in advance you can campaign for the party’s nomination and how long thereafter before you are declared the winner. They should be thinking about vice presidents right now. But
6. Florida, Florida, Florida. Why is it every election we have some issue? We had to have a recount. Our Dems did their primary out of sync. What next? Has all the sun in the sunshine state fried the citizens’ brains? It seems so.
7. Now I didn’t hear the whole speech, but from what I understand, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright has always been outspoken. So I’m kind of mad Obama started to diss him when the pressure got hot. It’s not like he just started saying this. It’s interesting how some folks are fair weather friends.
8. But I am also mad about how the media (and yes I am one of them) played up Wright and conveniently forgot to mention how the Clinton’s former pastor is going to jail for touching children. Let’s see, would we prefer someone to be outspoken or someone who touches children.
9. I have a few discrepancies with both candidates. Hil, and Bill, tend to have the dreaded foot-in-mouth disease when it comes to race relations. And I think Obama has it to an extent himself. It would be great if he had more experience beyond being a junior senator. And he need not be so flaky. But that’s just me and my opinion.

On the state level
1. Not much to say here but candidates have been coming out the wood wack to lil ole Hartwell. I even got to ride on a campaign bus with one and do an interview. That’s going in the scrapbook. But the candidate definitely sounded like a press release. I finally just stopped listening to him. He was impressed by my uncanny ability to write and take notes without looking at the paper once. That’s a little trick I picked up in high school. People talk more when you make eye contact (except sometimes they also get nervous and look away).

On the local level
1. Why do people who are uninformed and never come to the meetings run for office? I didn’t understand it during city elections last year, and I’m still baffled with the school board elections for this one.
There was this one man running for city election who was not only 100 but couldn’t read. Funny thing, I’ve never seen him at one city meeting.
The same thing is happening with the school board.
Seat A has two candidates running against an incumbent. One has not been to a meeting as far as I know (and I’m always there). The other, when he does come, he rants and raves about topics he is grossly misinformed about. The incumbent is a really cool man, and he does a good job. My vote goes for him.
Seat B has no incumbent. But the choices aren’t that great. One lady is misinformed, whenever she comes to a meeting (I recall two). The other has never been to a meeting since I’ve been here.
Seat C puts a retiring assistant principal, who is always at the meetings, against someone I’ve never seen before. No incumbent here either.
I do have to admit, they broadcast meetings on TV. Maybe these people who are running watch them at home.
Yeah right!
Maybe I should run for office. Naw, reporting about it is way more fun.