Well, I went and voted on Tuesday. I wasn’t sure if I was going to vote, but I was scared not to.
Puffy said I was gonna die if I didn’t vote. And when a soothsayer like the Diddy speaks, I take heed. I don’t wanna die! More frightening, though, would have been a campaign like “Vote or I’ll put out another solo records, but it won’t have any featured artists!” I’d have walked over broken glass to prevent that from happening.
(Also, maybe Puff should have had some of the good things that would happen if people did vote. You know…”vote and get a free glass of cognac.” Or “vote and get a record contract.” If Da Band could get a deal, we all could.)
Then, Bush won, and death didn’t seem so bad.

That’s right, he won…again. Not much I can say that hasn’t been said ad infinitium, but the most conversation I had about this was with Canada Ron at the office. As you can imagine, Ron’s from Canada. He hit me with something interesting…
“My wife and I are really at a bad place with this country right now.”
I’m always at a bad place with this country, but for many, Bush has managed to shake the way they feel about America. But it’s not just Bush that’s done that…it’s the amazing level of support he’s managed to engender. For all the idealism America’s founded upon–the land of milk, honey, and tolerance–there appear to be several handfulls of people that are willing to use that as advertising, then run a bait and switch. The sins of this administration have been widespread and egregious, yet most seem not to care about that.
Now that’s scary. He’s managed to shake the most effective and enduring level of idealism left on planet Earth. It isn’t the first time these American ideals have proven to be totally false, but it’s one of the few times that people are unable ignore the hypocrisy. It just so happens that a lot of folks are just fine with said hypocrisy.
But beyond anything ideological, there are questions about competence that must be answered with dealing with the Dubya. This was where Kerry dropped the ball. All he needed to do was offer some meager points on how he would handle things better than Bush did in the last four years, and he could offer very little. Bush has been bungling, and that bungling has been well-documented, but Kerry could not capitalize.
The overall moral of this story–the GOP runs better campaigns than the Democrats do. No, that isn’t a novel observation, but it’s the truth. This was more than Bush beating Kerry. The last go ’round was more than Bush (sorta) beating Gore. That was the Elephants stomping the Donkeys. The job of a party is to win elections, and the Democrats just can’t get it done in the big time. So, the Donkeys need regroup for what will be the most open Presidential race in recent memory in four years.
Think about this…Cheney says he’s not going to run (and he won’t), meaning this will likely be the first election I can think of that will have no link to the incumbent, whether that be a Vice President or a second-term Presidential hopeful. There’s no way to describe how bizarre that race will be, especially if Bush keeps blowing things like he has already. Will the GOP candidates then distance themselves from Bush? Will they embrace him?
And how ironic would it be if they chose to embrace him? Gore lost in 2000 because he chose to distance himself from eight years of peace and prosperity. Would some silly Elephant lose from embracing eight years of expensive gas and international discord? Or would that Elephant cash in by showing an attachment to eight years of renegade unilateralism?
At least four more years of Bush will give us plenty to talk about. However, a good presidency is a lot like good officiating in a football game–the way you know it’s good is when you don’t notice it at all.
Four more years…if Puffy’s threats were correct, this is almost enough to make me wish I hadn’t voted.
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Look out for the column tomorrow…I’ll probably put a link up, but maybe not. Either way, it’ll be an open letter to Nelly. I doubt you’ll see this one coming.