2002-10-20
political mobilization, posted at 11:27 a.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com What a lazy Sunday morning. I slept in until 10:30, not quite long enough to alleviate my hangover but long enough where I feel a bit lazy. I apparently missed seeing Bowling for Columbine at The Charles by a long shot; maybe I'll go to the movies later today, though. I have to get some grading done. Perhaps I can make it my reward for grading 20 more essays. Having the movies there as the carrot on the stick will hopefully allow me to resist the urge to poke out my eyes because I can't stand to grade any more.A few random thoughts for the morning:
Something about last night's house concert just didn't feel right. I'm not sure what it was, but it didn't feel as warm as usual. Maybe it was the absence of Boston Betty, who I feel is drifting from me a little. I'll see if I can work on that. Maybe it was the fact that some of my older teacher friends showed up late, didn't get a place to sit, and ended up leaving at the set break and I think that's why. I don't know.
I'm getting excited about my first Maryland election. It now looks like Kennedy Townsend is going to win, although it's close enough where a mistake by her could make a difference. But it's been Ehrlich who's been making all the mistakes lately - not showing up to a debate and not even informing the debate organizers, for example. If Kennedy Townsend loses, it won't be because of her record or her stances; it'll be because of her general lack of charisma (screechy voice, trips over words) and lack of good political instincts. So it's nice to see the other side - Ehrlich, who is a charismatic and funny, but has a pretty terrible record - make a big screwup. Kennedy Townsend beat him pretty bad in the one debate the two had - after Ehrlich had asked for a debate for months, knowing he could whomp her - and when Kennedy Townsend won it, it was sort of a turning point in the campaign. The other turning point, unfortunately, has been the sniper attacks. A lot of people now don't want to vote for guy who voted "no" to a ban on assault rifles.
Anyhow, I have more of a dislike of Ehrlich than the usual candidate I'm opposing. I'm a pretty loyal Democrat, but would consider voting for a Republican if they were qualified or showed me they didn't take the party line on all issues (for example, if they were pro-choice, anti-performance based instruction, or anti-capital punishment - some big issues for me - I might vote for them if I liked them). But Ehrlich seems like one of the worst. His record is pretty heinous, even by usual right wing standards. This makes it especially odd that there's this big "Democrats for Ehrlich" movement that I keep seeing on bumper stickers. I've gotta attribute that to Kathleen's lack of charisma, some of the current governor's controversies (KKT is his attorney general), and some sexism.
I'm almost sort of glad now that Ehrlich made this comment about teacher salaries, because it's served to mobilize me on the governor's race here. I was planning on staying registered in Michigan so I can vote for Jennifer Granholm, who I've been wowed by ever since I saw her speak a few years ago at MSU. She could be the first female president, if she weren't born in Canada. I've got a ton of respect for her. Anyhow, I think she's got that race sewn up (who wants to vote for a guy named Posthumus?), though I could be wrong (Eleanor? Gale?). But I think KKT needs my help more than Jennifer, so I'll be voting here. And if it weren't for Ehrlich's comment about teacher salaries not being a problem, I might have remained disinterested instead of being the guy with the sign in his yard and the bumper stickers on his car.
The question remains: will the Granholm governorship or the Kennedy Townsend governorship affect me more? Because, will I be living here in Maryland or up in Michigan for the duration of it?
Hmmmm....
My, how I wish that Michigan had cool cities and wasn't in the middle of nowhere. I wish that at least one city in Michigan had a quarter of the coolness that Baltimore has.