John'sApologeticBlog.Blogspot.Com

I'm contemplating changing this blog's name to the above because I feel like every post in the last 3 months has been me apologizing for not blogging more. And the reason, more than anything, is that I usually prefer to talk about weightier things and shy away from the more frivolous (or at least achieve a 60-40 mix) and I haven't found myself with a whole lot to say about some of the weightier stuff lately.

Actually, to be more precise I haven't really found anything new to say. I still have the same problems with both the Republican and Democratic parties and I just haven't felt compelled to rehash my feelings when the Democrats continue to do next to nothing with the largest majority in decades while the Republicans continue to act like they've basically erased capitalism completely. As a result, I've actually returned to being somewhat apolitical. To be sure, I still keep myself informed and will definitely be voting next month. I just no longer devour my weekly Economist and I tend to skip the podcasts of the Sunday morning political shows in favor of This American Life and Zencast.

I guess this is the so-called "enthusiasm gap", which Obama talked about in a recent Rolling Stone interview. He said it was "inexcusable for any Democrat or progressive right now to stand on the sidelines" and while I agree with him in the strictest sense that choosing not to vote is a terrible option (as it always is) I don't agree with the larger sentiment. In a way it reminds me of the Windows commercials from a few years ago. Vista had gotten such horrible reviews that they decided to take groups of people and demo for them a supposedly new Windows operating system. At the end of each session they asked for feedback and apparently the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Of course, it wasn't a new operating system, it was Vista. So essentially their marketing campaign consisted of saying "You know this thing you have that you've all told us you don't like? You actually like it." Not surprisingly, Windows Vista has now given way to Windows 7. So, in a similar vein, Obama is now telling all of his 2008 supporters "You know those things we've done in the last 2 years that you're not excited about? You should be." When a candidate, or a company, or anyoneelse trying to market something fails to generate excitement it is their failure, not the failure of the populace.

Of course, I'm not exactly shocked by this outcome. I have a standing bet with my friend Joe (made in mid-2008) that if Obama was elected he would be a 1 term President. Not because I didn't think he would do a good job but because the expectations that were being set (and that he was feeding into) were so high that he couldn't possibly live up to them. While I think I was dead-on with that assessment, to this point I still think I'm probably going to lose that bet. We're only a year away from the full-blown kickoff of primary season and I just don't see any Republican out there who's going to beat him. Republicans like to say that this year will be 1994 all over again. I say be careful what you wish for, because after that it's also just as likely to be 1996 all over again too. Ironically, I think the Republican's best path to the White House in 2012 is for the Democrats to retain both houses, because Congress is almost always extremely unpopular and the Republicans will benefit more from 2 more years of voter angst at a Democratic Congress rather than if it's split between the parties. I don't think that's likely though. The Republicans are almost certainly going to take control of the House, and the Senate is likely to wind up close to split (+ or - 2 seats).

In a slight topic change, the one issue I am fairly decisive about as it relates to the state elections is the proposed amendment to the IL State Constitution which would allow for a vote to recall the governor if enough people sign a petition. First I cannot imagine how anyone could have looked at the California recall election circus and thought "boy I wish we could have that here!" And second, I cannot think of a more hideous outcome for governance than to have a governor that is forever in campaign mode. I urge my fellow Illinoisans to vote no on the Governor Recall Amendment.