Friday Night Political Fight

We're staying home tonight. We're not going eat out like we usually do on Friday nights. I think I'll go over to Wood's today and pick up some German sausages. We'll each have one dressed with pickles, mustard, mayonnaise and wrapped in melted Tillamook medium cheddar and country potato bun for dinner, which could be spent in front of the TV set. I don't know yet.

I don't want to miss the debate. Maybe some people will, but I want to watch even if only one person stands up there and debates with himself. I enjoy Presidential debates, even though in this case I've probably heard the same rhetoric hundreds of times before. This has been a long election process, and, like many Americans, I have kept close watch on almost every curve in the road.

At this intersection, I'm thinking things are going to get really interesting. A year ago, the War in Iraq received top billing on the subjects Presidential candidates wanted to discuss. Today the war between the losers and the losers within the American boundaries has evolved.

First, there are the losers. These are the bigwigs and the poor scared saps who got us into our current financial mess. From what I've watched on the news, lots of regular folks are not happy with the greedy lenders and the naive borrowers. People would like to run them out of Dodge for creating such havoc with the American financial system.

I listened to one lady last night on CBS News and decided she was a loser, like a lot of us. She can't understand why she has to pay for this mess when she's already done all her paying in the right places. She pays her bills. She pays her taxes. She works hard for her money. She has not over-extended herself.

So, we have two classes of losers----some mad, some running scared.

It will be interesting to hear the words coming from the mouths of those candidates who have to take on this mess within a few short months. I don't envy them. It will be a tough challenge, for sure. It seems that solving and following through on this situation will directly impact virtually every other issue discussed in the election----money spent in Iraq, money spent for education, jobs, health care, etc.

The one thing I can say about this Presidential election is that it's been mesmerizing from the beginning. Hardly a dull moment, and the action will surely intensify as we continue to watch anti-climax after anti-climax. I've been on the edge of my seat several times so far, and I expect that dramatic surprises will unfold several times more before voting day----maybe even several times today.

The subplots have been good too.

Has anyone ever figured out what advice Bill Clinton is offering Todd Palin? Will Hillary or maybe even Elvis come back to save the day? How many brothers and sisters of Barack Obama living in poverty will be found in strange places around the world before Election Day? Does Michelle's "gyrating" on the Ellen Show make her less deserving to be First Lady than Cindy McCain, whose dignity and sophistication rises beyond compare? Honest to goodness, that concern has been expressed in a recent regional letters-to-the-editor forum.

Again, I'm excited to watch tonight's debate and all those that follow. In fact, as a political junkie, I'm looking ahead to Election Day and figuring things could get pretty dull after that. But then again, if the writers don't go on strike this year, maybe we can expect a full season of freshly-written scripts for TV to take our minds off the scary things happening in the real world.

Happy Friday.