I cannot believe how close this race seems to be. It is astounding. I have a feeling that in almost any other faux democratic country you'd see some kind of backlash against the current administration and the party that brought it to power. Maybe not a crushing defeat, but you know, a solid good 10% ahead in the polls would be expected.

A large majority of Americans have disapproved of Bush for years now, for the lowest approval ratings of any US president. They've increased their national debt and gov't spending across the board to nearly unprecedented levels, got them into two wars they were unlikely to win and one of them under false pretenses they've yet to answer for (but got lucky with Iraq's seeming stabilization). Everytime you turn around, you see another scandal breaking over something crazy shifty and more often than not illegal (Scooter Libby, NSA wiretaps, political discrimination when hiring in the Dept of Justice, that's just off the top of my head).

I mean, Kucinich managed to speak for four hours in a row on why they should impeach them, just a month or two ago. I have a hard conceiving of any litany of grievances that takes four hours to air.

Compare the conventions! The RNC speeches sounded a lot like an opposition party. I choked on my drink listening to Romney bash "liberal elites" for, uh, all of the wrong doing they've done the past, uh, eight years? I don't even understand how the choice of Palin didn't turn off female voters. Oh look, he picked a token young woman.

The issues in this election have been ridiculous. Drilling in Alaska somehow comes across as a sound policy? I don't know guys, I'm just stunned that the GOP is so amazingly good at setting the terms and extremes of American political discourse, so much so that the Democrat-majority Congress is afraid of rocking the boat.

I leave you with two links:
http://www.overcompensating.com/posts/20080904.html
http://www.someecards.com/upload/somewhat_topical/im_leaning_towards_voting_for_the.html

The Nuclear Suppliers Group has approved a waiver for India to buy uranium and nuclear technologies despite not having signed the nonproliferation treatty. Next comes action by the U.S. Congress which if given will open India's markets to U.S. firms.

Congress has a short attention span with the looming Novenmber election. Action on India's deal could wind up being shuffled into the next Congress or never if Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif, has his way. What do readers think. Deal or no deal for the U.S.?

http://djysrv.blogspot.com/2008/09/nuclear-suupliers-group-approves-india.html

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Idaho Samizdat http://djysrv.blogspot.com