2008 Rant Again

There's tons of 2008 presidential race news out there (Barack Obama making it official, Republicans convincing themselves Rudy Guiliani is their savior), but I still can't bring myself to get into it all on this blog.

First, I still think it's too early. Primary campaigns starting a year early? No, thank you. It cheapens our democracy by immediately going from one election cycle to the next. The media is largely to blame for this, since they started the 2008 debates about a week after the midterm elections. Except for focusing on the larger issues of the coming campaigns (ie. healthcare), I'm ignoring the battle between candidates for now.

A secondary reason is that, being the big old cynic that I am, I am pessimistic about 2008. The noise machines are in full insanity mode (did Obama go to a madrassa?, is Hillary too calculating?, why does Obama hate our troops?, aren't John Edwards' bloggers so nasty?, why did Obama dare defend himself when the Australian prime minister said terrorists are rooting for him?) while seemingly ignoring-- comparatively, anyway-- the other side of the coin.

I think my feelings on this race then are summed by this quote posted, geekily enough, on a Simpsons forum I frequent: "This will end up like the 1968 election. So many great ideas, such an important election, so many qualified candidates, and they end up electing Nixon."

Prove me wrong, America. Prove me wrong.