Political Stuff

I love Fox News. You may think less of me, but it is the most entertaining news channel around. If you are going there for actual news, then you're probably lacking a decent perspective on politics. If you go there for the irony, they will never fail in rewarding you. I was at home yesterday and figured I'd watch the news channels to see what they were saying about Obama's acceptance speech. When I switched on Fox News at 7:30am, they were broadcasting from the site of the Republican National Convention. Now the start of the actual convention was still 3 whole days away, but who doesn't want to see where Britt Hume and the gang will be sitting next week. And w/ the intimacy of television you don't get to see that "the big tent" Fox News embraces in its broadcasting is actually a big tent. It's not really a metaphor. It's really a big tent. I was a little distraught that their over the top coverage of the Democratic Convention couldn't be matched by any other network for the Republican Convention, but then I realized they can be just as over the top for the Republican Convention. Why would I continue to watch PBS w/ their never ending speeches from the convention floor when Fox News will tell me exactly what the words I just heard really mean.

It's not just watching Fox News that has me worried about Obama's chances in the upcoming election. To win he's depending on a huge turnout from young people. I'm not saying it can't happen, but people under 35 voted at a less than 50% clip in the last presidential election. I don't know what that number needs to be and he'll certainly raise that, but how high can the youth vote really get? Wait, don't answer that question.

Finally, I'm voting for Mike Munger for NC governor this fall. Most of his talking points are things that I really support (and, yes, I noticed that the issue w/ the most ink is also the issue that I'm not 100% behind him). But really it's NC's laws about how a political party gets preferred status on the election ballot that have me voting Libertarian.