The "P" word...

Well, we're somewhere in the neighborhood of 11 days away from the General Election, and it's got me in a Politics kind of mood. I know this sort of post isn't something one comes to this blog for, so I'll try to make it enlightening, entertaining and/or quasi-educational.

For those unaware, Boulder city is a VERY left-leaning town. And a right-leaning independent like myself is kind of an oddity around here. I was a on a bike ride a couple of weeks ago with some friends and their friends, and I was talking to one rider (who happens to place himself near the Libertarian part of the political spectrum) who has lived here a while, and his comment was: "It's pretty funny telling people you're something other than a Democrat. They look at you like you're some kind of rare zoo animal... they didn't think that non-Democrats existed in Boulder."

"So, who are you voting for?" you might be thinking. Well, I'm not completely enamored with either of the major candidates, but I do have a weak frontrunner. It's not like there's a dearth of choices, either, because on the Colorado ballot there are sixteen – SIXTEEN, count 'em, 1-6 – candidates for President! Despite my penchant for making things up to get a laugh, I assure you, the following are honest-to-goodness candidates (and parties) on the CO ballot:

• John McCain / Sarah Palin - Republican
• Barack Obama / Joe Biden - Democratic
• Chuck Baldwin / Darrell L. Castle - Constitution
• Bob Barr / Wayne A. Root - Libertarian
• Cynthia McKinney / Rosa A. Clemente - Green
• Jonathan E. Allen / Jeffrey D. Stath - HeartQuake '08
• Gene C. Amondson / Leroy J. Pletten - Prohibition
• James Harris / Alyson Kennedy - Socialist Workers
• Charles Jay / Dan Sallis, Jr. - Boston Tea
• Alan Keyes / Brian Rohrbough - America's Independent
• Gloria La Riva / Robert Moses - Socialism and Liberation
• Bradford Lyttle / Abraham Bassford - U.S. Pacifist
• Frank Edward McEnulty / David Mangan - Unaffiliated
• Brian Moore / Stewart A. Alexander - Socialist, USA
• Ralph Nader / Matt Gonzalez - Unaffiliated
• Thomas Robert Stevens / Alden Link - Objectivist

Did you catch the news that the Obama campaign raised $150 million in September? Not through September, in. This news was accompanied by this plea from a campaign manager, "Even though we had such a great September financially, we need to ask you to continue to contribute." Astounding? Oh my, yes. Good astounding? Well, I guess that's open to debate. Personally, I would never give money to any political campaign, largely because I feel a) there are more important and needy organizations/charities to fund and b) there's already too much money in politics. So, yes, I disagree with the notion that donating to a campaign is a form of free speech. Obama and McCain (and their 14 competitors here in CO) were speaking freely before they started accepting donations to their presidential campaigns, right? (No sarcasm intended, but if someone can explain -- or point me to -- why giving money to a political campaign is protected free speech, I'd love to read it.)

Well, this is getting kind of long, so I'll close with these two hypothetical questions I heard recently.
- The first I heard on NPR. Why is it we have only 2 choices when it comes to picking a President, but 50 when it comes to picking Miss America?
- The second came from my brother. Why is it our government can force all broadcasters to go digital by February 2009, but can't force auto manufacturers to make more fuel efficient cars?

Now go vote!