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Feb. 3rd, 2004 02:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miko2Tom was asleep when I got home and hasn't gotten up since, so I was able to lie down on the couch in the livingroom and finish my book on the life of a Geisha. Quite interesting.
And... nothing else of interest to add. Next up for reading material would be the rest of The Salt Sorcerer of Oz and maybe Tales from Earthsea.
Last week after I downloaded all of those "Howard Dean Primal Scream Remix" songs I assembled a cd full of them. I made two copies. I couldn't fit all of the songs onto one cd so I removed some of the longer ones... probably took out ten or twelve. The resulting cd still had 55 tracks on it. I gave one copy to Laura at work, and after listening to the other about 2 1/2 times, gave it to Gloriah. I didn't need to listen to it any more than that. ^_^
Anyway I lent it to Debi (Debbie? Debbi? I'm going with Debi) so she could hear it before giving it to Gloriah. Debi said that she didn't know what Howard Dean's primal scream was. Hadn't heard of it. In fact, she didn't know who Howard Dean was. Or any of the Democratic Presidential hopefuls. This is someone who spends all kinds of time on the internet, mostly chatting or composing e-mails or messages or downloading music I guess. (And actually she knows where my livejournal is, so hi Debi! ^_^ )
But it surprised me that someone who listens to the radio a lot and is on the internet a lot manages to avoid any news. When I get online, I always check the news, either Seattle Times or the Seattle P-I. When I listen to radio, it's usually NPR, and if not that then it's KIRO or KJR... and even KJR, a sports talk station, mentions the big news stories. During the week I'll usually listen to NPR radio for several hours every night. (Although they've made a lot of changes to their lineup recently and most of them I'm not happy with).
It's not that I think Debi is that unusual... actually I'm probably the one that's not normal. I mean, withinin my own circle of friends it's not strange to listen to NPR or otherwise keep up with the news on a daily basis. But we're an unusual group.
Anyway... where was I going? Oh, yes, news. NPR. The primaries. Super Tuesday. I heard one report on NPR that made me laugh... John Kerry was leading in the polls in Arizona, but General Clark was hoping for a strong showing. Currently he was in third place, right behind "Undecided".
This seemed signifigant to me. Why? Because. A lot of Deomocrats are extremely anti-Bush (well, with good reason of course) and are hoping that a huge wave of anti-Bush sentiment will sweep them into the White House this fall. And I'm not saying that it can't or won't happen... Bush had made a lot of enemies with his policies. (For the sake of Gene and a few of my friends, we can amend that to "Dick Cheney has made a lot of enemies with the policies that Bush enacts on his behalf").
But the thing is, it's one thing to be anti-Bush, and another thing to be pro-Kerry. Or pro-Dean. Or pro-whoever.
If you ask me, that's why there are so many undecided people in that Arizona poll. People want to vote against Bush but they're having a hard time deciding who they would rather have instead of him. Kerry is stiff. He's a senator... those guys almost never get elected President. You get the sense that he's a politician first, meaning he's not so much interested in his own ideals as he is in displaying the ideals that people want him to have. Every politician is like that, but some of them mask it better than others.
I'd probably vote for Kerry over Bush. But I'm not convinced he'd make a stellar President.
Howard Dean... I'm not really convinced he's Presidential material. I tend to see him as he portrays himself, as the left wing of the party. I don't identify strongly with either party, but I consider myself a moderate and I'm registered Republican. I voted for Bush because I didn't like Gore. Now I'll probably vote for someone else because I don't like Bush... but then I'll probably vote against whoever beats him the next time they come around. I would have rather had McCain as President, but he's not the type of guy who's likely to ever get the nomination. Too moderate, too independant. That's generally Lieberman's problem on the Democratic side too. I also like him. ^_^ As for Dean... I admire that he's also very independant, but other than that I don't think I'd vote for him. If I had to choose between him and Bush I'd be a very unhappy voter.
I think of the top four in the Democratic primary I might like Edwards best. At least, I tend to think he'd make a good President, based on what I've seen so far. I suppose I'd vote for Clark as well, but I'm not as certain that he'd make a good President. Edwards is supposedly too young and too much a trial lawyer, but that doesn't bother me. But I suppose he'll either become Vice President or in some other way wind up running again in four or eight years.
I expect Kerry to win the nomination, not because he's a great choice for President, but because the alternatives are apparently less appealing. People (Democrats I mean) want above all things to beat Bush, and for some reason Kerry is the chosen one. And that's not chosen one as in "Messiah, we've found you at last" but the chosen one as in "well, I guess you'll have to do".
And... nothing else of interest to add. Next up for reading material would be the rest of The Salt Sorcerer of Oz and maybe Tales from Earthsea.
Last week after I downloaded all of those "Howard Dean Primal Scream Remix" songs I assembled a cd full of them. I made two copies. I couldn't fit all of the songs onto one cd so I removed some of the longer ones... probably took out ten or twelve. The resulting cd still had 55 tracks on it. I gave one copy to Laura at work, and after listening to the other about 2 1/2 times, gave it to Gloriah. I didn't need to listen to it any more than that. ^_^
Anyway I lent it to Debi (Debbie? Debbi? I'm going with Debi) so she could hear it before giving it to Gloriah. Debi said that she didn't know what Howard Dean's primal scream was. Hadn't heard of it. In fact, she didn't know who Howard Dean was. Or any of the Democratic Presidential hopefuls. This is someone who spends all kinds of time on the internet, mostly chatting or composing e-mails or messages or downloading music I guess. (And actually she knows where my livejournal is, so hi Debi! ^_^ )
But it surprised me that someone who listens to the radio a lot and is on the internet a lot manages to avoid any news. When I get online, I always check the news, either Seattle Times or the Seattle P-I. When I listen to radio, it's usually NPR, and if not that then it's KIRO or KJR... and even KJR, a sports talk station, mentions the big news stories. During the week I'll usually listen to NPR radio for several hours every night. (Although they've made a lot of changes to their lineup recently and most of them I'm not happy with).
It's not that I think Debi is that unusual... actually I'm probably the one that's not normal. I mean, withinin my own circle of friends it's not strange to listen to NPR or otherwise keep up with the news on a daily basis. But we're an unusual group.
Anyway... where was I going? Oh, yes, news. NPR. The primaries. Super Tuesday. I heard one report on NPR that made me laugh... John Kerry was leading in the polls in Arizona, but General Clark was hoping for a strong showing. Currently he was in third place, right behind "Undecided".
This seemed signifigant to me. Why? Because. A lot of Deomocrats are extremely anti-Bush (well, with good reason of course) and are hoping that a huge wave of anti-Bush sentiment will sweep them into the White House this fall. And I'm not saying that it can't or won't happen... Bush had made a lot of enemies with his policies. (For the sake of Gene and a few of my friends, we can amend that to "Dick Cheney has made a lot of enemies with the policies that Bush enacts on his behalf").
But the thing is, it's one thing to be anti-Bush, and another thing to be pro-Kerry. Or pro-Dean. Or pro-whoever.
If you ask me, that's why there are so many undecided people in that Arizona poll. People want to vote against Bush but they're having a hard time deciding who they would rather have instead of him. Kerry is stiff. He's a senator... those guys almost never get elected President. You get the sense that he's a politician first, meaning he's not so much interested in his own ideals as he is in displaying the ideals that people want him to have. Every politician is like that, but some of them mask it better than others.
I'd probably vote for Kerry over Bush. But I'm not convinced he'd make a stellar President.
Howard Dean... I'm not really convinced he's Presidential material. I tend to see him as he portrays himself, as the left wing of the party. I don't identify strongly with either party, but I consider myself a moderate and I'm registered Republican. I voted for Bush because I didn't like Gore. Now I'll probably vote for someone else because I don't like Bush... but then I'll probably vote against whoever beats him the next time they come around. I would have rather had McCain as President, but he's not the type of guy who's likely to ever get the nomination. Too moderate, too independant. That's generally Lieberman's problem on the Democratic side too. I also like him. ^_^ As for Dean... I admire that he's also very independant, but other than that I don't think I'd vote for him. If I had to choose between him and Bush I'd be a very unhappy voter.
I think of the top four in the Democratic primary I might like Edwards best. At least, I tend to think he'd make a good President, based on what I've seen so far. I suppose I'd vote for Clark as well, but I'm not as certain that he'd make a good President. Edwards is supposedly too young and too much a trial lawyer, but that doesn't bother me. But I suppose he'll either become Vice President or in some other way wind up running again in four or eight years.
I expect Kerry to win the nomination, not because he's a great choice for President, but because the alternatives are apparently less appealing. People (Democrats I mean) want above all things to beat Bush, and for some reason Kerry is the chosen one. And that's not chosen one as in "Messiah, we've found you at last" but the chosen one as in "well, I guess you'll have to do".
