turning blue

The other thing apart from the stuff below that has been taking up quite a bit of time is campaign watching. I dunno if it's a boon or a bane that now that there's cable in my house, cos while with cnn and bbc and (if all else fails, the 'fair and balanced' fox news) there's no shortage of coverage on everything that's been going on, it also means that i spend way too much time watching these thingies. And this is even before we talk about the less serious stuff like the Colbert Report and SNL, which takes up that much more time. All in all, i think i probably know more about who each state is likely to vote for than about, say, theories on motivation in ed psych (which speaks volumes about my own motivation eh) or the process method of writing (i don't really know anything about the latter actually).

I'm sure that my limited exposure to the so-called liberal zoo that is Chapel Hill within the conservative heartland that is NC played a role in it, but as of now, and in fact, generally speaking, methinks i've always been more inclined towards the Dems. Of course the negative campaigning, which has been especially prevalent among McPalin, has helped to sway me the other way. And also the fact that it seems to be the very basis of their campaign - not the issues, but rather, that you should not vote for the other because yaddayaddayadda... And i think it would be so regrettable if McPalin were to win on the basis of the opponent being a purported Arab, a Muslim, and a terrorist's associate, among other negatives. And the way things are going, the only way i see them winning is this way - the sad thing being that there exists way too many of the kind of voters that can be swayed by crap like that for this to be the case. I guess it's good to see for a change that both sides have sort of agreed to tone down the negativity, and that McCain even corrected some of his terribly myopic supporters' misguided views on Obama - "he's an Arab" being one of them. Unfortunately, the people running his campaign seem to be more willing than him to use lies and half-truths to get him to the White House, if that's the only way they have left. And all the nonsense that Palin continues to say is exactly the kind of fluff that the aforementioned clueless hick voter relishes with much aplomb. That's why i've given up listening to her nonsense - might as well just stick to Tina Fey's more substantial and humorous version.

Thinking back a bit though, one other regrettable thing about this election is the almost total silence on the issue of poverty, both domestically and abroad. For all of John Edwards' moral failings (and the somewhat hypocritical fact that he's a multi-millionaire residing in a giant mansion in Chapel Hill), one thing i've always appreciated about him is that he made tackling poverty a central issue of his campaign(s). Having seen my fair share of it even in the US itself, i know it's an issue that has to be raised. For some strange reason though (or maybe i've not been paying enough attention), i've not heard either McCain or Obama talk about the working class, at least not explicitly. The closest anyone has gotten has been Biden using his working class roots to his advantage. Generally though it all seems to be about the middle class (for Obama, i mean - McCain doesn't even talk about them), and now all the more so in the wake of this financial mess that affects them the most. But while they're at it, how about those below the middle class who never had it good to begin with, and definitely will not have it any better in this current situation? Do they not form a big enough voting bloc to matter to the campaign? With the economy in the crap state that it is in now, one sad thing from my point of view is that those who have already been neglected will only be even more neglected as the $700 billion focus shifts elsewhere...