The picture is what sells it.

In my excitement at the discovery of the GOP Ticket = "Battlestar Galactica" Theory, I forgot to mention the continuation of the "The West Wing" = Current Political Situation Theory.

In Season Six of "The West Wing," the Democratic candidate selects an older, weathered politician with Washington credibility and loads of foreign policy experience (along with a checkered past and a slight hint of masochism to his personality), to counteract accusations of his own naiveté. Meanwhile, the Republican goes against the longstanding expectations of his party and selects a young, rising-star governor from a lightly populated backwoods state to be his running mate. While his candidate's main object is to help shore up the base, his VP choice immediate goes on the offensive against the opposition as their dedicated hatchet man. In particular, the VP's eye-opener of a speech at the RNC raises the ire of the Democrats, before the Presidential candidate gives a less partisan, "I promise to work for the American people" speech to close the event.

So really, the similarities between the show and real life seem to have disappeared, eh?

By the way, has anyone else noticed that Obama's tax plan is the one Aaron Sorkin proposed in Season 4? They're even defending it in the same way.

It IS eerie, isn't it?



This will mean nothing to a lot of you, but if you've ever watched Battlestar Galactica, the parallels here are truly frightening:



I'd been holding to the current Presidential race = Seasons 6 and 7 of The West Wing theory, but I think I may have to abandon that strategy and go for this new theory. After all, Sen. McCain and Col. Tigh are both former POWs, and Palin and Roslin both come from education backgrounds.

Though, I suppose there's something to be said for people just naturally looking for leadership from wizened old military vets and capable women wearing spectacles.

Some of you might have to think about it for a while.

A teenaged friend of mine had been keeping her sexual preference hidden from her parents, knowing that they’d react badly. Her parents discovered her secret, blew sky-high, and sent her off to Amsterdam to straighten her out.

I’m sure I should feel sympathy more than anything, but instead, all I can think is, “my God, so many jokes!”

I don't talk about this much...

McCain has rapidly gained five points in the polls over the past few weeks, putting himself only a few points behind Obama - though I’m sure that the Biden announcement combined with the DNC will change things in the coming days; and then the Republican announcement will swing things back again, etc.

I was hunting across news sites looking for reasons why McCain was gaining on Obama and came up empty. I found poll data and a few guesses about the cause, none of which were new: Hillary supporters are considering McCain, McCain has gone on the attack with good effect, etc. The surprising one was how many publications blamed the gain on racism. Here’s one rather unsurprising one.

Analysts continue to refer to racism as “the elephant in the room” in this election, but the obvious truth is that there’s been fairly consistent debate over the nature of race in politics throughout this election year. Not to say, as always, that we don’t still have miles to go.

I just don’t see how racism applies here. Assumably, there are a certain number of people in America who will never vote for a black candidate. Beyond that, there are shades of gray: people who might under very certain circumstances vote for a black president, people who have bitterness towards the black community for one reason or another, people who are vaguely but non-specifically prejudiced, and so on. But shouldn’t all that be decided by now?

If someone’s mind is made up against Obama, either partially or totally because of his race, that shouldn’t change according to current events. As best I understand it, it either affects your decision making or it doesn’t. You don’t suddenly decide “y’know, I don’t think I can vote for Obama after all. He is, after all, black.”

I have to think that the several major publications that blame McCain’s surge on racism have done Obama a disservice. To say that the only reason his opponent could rise in the polls would be general racism isn’t just insulting, it’s politically damaging. Naturally, Obama’s campaign has become the figurehead of race relations in this country, but comments like this make it only that. Obama’s made it fairly clear that he doesn’t want to spend a lot of time discussing his ethnicity (though certainly that hasn’t stopped anybody from doing it for him, and you can read into that however you want), so to turn his Presidential campaign into nothing more than a metaphor for the shape of prejudice in America is insulting to Obama, McCain, and Americans in general.