Debatable?

I wanted to watch the debate last night, but it wasn't broadcast locally. Thank goodness! Instead, I watched the last regular season basketball games, where the refs weren't Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos. From what I've read and seen today, the debate was more of the same absurd crap that we've witnessed for the last 30 years.

One has to wonder what Stephanopoulos was up to. Sure, it's been more than 10 years since he was the voice of the Clinton Administration, but when I saw clips today of the debate, I couldn't help but wonder if Hillary was calling in a debt owed, getting the debate to center on ad hominem attacks and "gotcha" politics instead of something substantive. But maybe I'm just becoming as cynical as our Washington elites.

Stephanopoulos is just like all the media figures in Washington; cynical, hubristic and mostly stupid. Maybe the only "fix" required was the idea that if someone like Obama were to get elected, people like Charles Gibson and George Stephanopolous - echoplexes of the common wisdom of Washington - might end up on the bread line. Hey! I can dream!

In any event, watch the video above. Obama gets Washington. Don't you want to help him change it? I do.

Last weekend, I changed my political affiliation. Since 1980, the first year I could vote, I've been a proud independent. I wore my independence like a badge of honor - I wasn't going to be drawn into stupid, partisan debates and I paid a price for it; I couldn't vote in primaries. I believed I could rise above partisanship, and focus on wonkish policy issues. For years and years I watched people wring their hands about this and that, while I read White Papers and quietly voted my conscience. Sometimes I voted for Republicans and independents (I voted for Dubya's dad, which I regret), but mostly I voted Democratic. But the last seven years have changed all that.

I don't love the Democratic Party. It's current leadership is weak and ineffectual. But I despise the Republicans and what they have become. That is not to say that I find conservatism horrid; on the contrary, some true conservative notions are excellent - balanced budgets and a smaller federal government come to mind. The problem with the current body of the Republicans is that the true conservatives have been marginalized by neocons, political opportunists and the Fundamentalist nut-jobs whose literalist reading of the Bible makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck. So, I've rolled up my sleeves and started working for the Obama campaign. I'm a Democrat, and it feels great. The soft revolution continues, undaunted.