I was looking forward to Obama's speech last night and even contemplated staying up for it. After watching the speech this morning, I'm glad I didn't. I don't know if I had too high of expectations or what. I was just wanting someone (anyone, really) to inspire and challenge our country collectively. I guess I was hoping Obama would try to appeal to both sides and bridge the party differences and even possibly seal the deal for me. But, as I ate my bowl of Frosties (Frosted Flakes for you Americans) I felt nothing. In fact, his attacks and digs against Bush and Republicans actually frustrated me more than the level of sogginess of my Frosties after a 15 minute speech. Granted, McCain hasn't provided much inspiration either... UNTIL today. I never really gave it much thought so I'm not sure why I was excitedly shocked that McCain picked a woman as his running mate. It makes sense, but I figured he would follow the political safe road and pick a fellow Washington bureacrat, boy was I wrong.
Alright, so, let me give you the laundry list of qaulifications of why I'm a fan of Sarah Palin:
1. She's pretty HOT
And that's all I got...
Ok I'm joking. But you have to admit, she gives a really good first impression.
Needless to say, I'm still no closer to deciding how I'm going to vote... Most people that know me know I'm super conservative, but being in Europe has shown me that not everything is black or white (or in this case red or blue.) The order of "red or blue" in the previous sentence does not apply respectively to "black or white" so get over yourself if you took it that far. In fact, I avoid political conversations at all costs over here, mostly because only one side of the story is shown in the news. Events, situations, or stories are all portrayed with such subjective slants that it taints any objective conversation anyone can have with a Belgian. I don't fault the Belgians for having such disdain for certain aspects of American life, it's all they know. But I do fault the media for only putting out one very slanted side of the story. I'm not just saying this becuase it happens to be the liberal slant, I think I would feel the same way if was only the conservative slant shown. Rather than complain about the lack of objectivism or neutrality in the media, I think it would be more beneficial and possibly even more entertaining if the subjectivism continued but both sides were shown. It would be up to the individual to decide, with the truth being somewhere in the middle. Now, yes I know the possible repricussions that could occur if man were left to his own intellectual devices, and so did our founding fathers, because that is exactly why we have the electoral college. If too many people begin to think for themselves and begin to vote according to their principles and convictions rather than party affiliations or the "hotness" of a candidate, the "leaders" and "priviledged" of our country would be in danger of losing their jobs. Alright, I know that's a bit harsh, but I'm just fed up with politics and the "talk" of change. My cousin was just here last week and we spoke a little about politics and she did mention something that I think is worth repeating. She said "I'm a thinker, not a Republican or Democrat or even Independent." And I completely agree. My challenge to you and mainly myself, is to be a thinker. I don't care who you vote for, I only care if you can tell me why you voted for who you did or even what the key issues were for you in your decision. I'll even accept "Because she's hot." I think that's better than "Because she's Republican." We can even discuss the pros and cons of having an attractive person represent and lead our country. Case in point: recently elected mayor of London, Boris Johnson. (picture below)... Could he be a suitable leader of a country or even an important international city? Forget about his merits and credibility as a person, don't lose focus, judge only on appearance... haha jk. But seriously!
Ok, enough of my political rant. If you've made it this far, thank you for reading. If you don't agree with anything I said, then Katie made me say it. JK. But she did encourage me to make a special appearance on the blog so it's ultimately her fault if I've bored you to death.
Hope all is well and thank you to everyone that has supported us (especially with fun filled care packages). See you in October!
Stephen
