Tuesday, January 22, 2008

So long, Grandpa Fred

So you're not the next Reagan. Big deal. By not voting for you in the Presidential primaries, the American people were implicitly voting that they want you at your true post -- President of "Law & Order" -- presuming the WGA strike ever ends.

With this and Guliani's campaign fading gently into that good night, I suppose it means we're down to three on each side. I'm glad that Fred is gone, not only because he's a lousy candidate, but because many of his supporters will defect to Huckabee in future Southern primaries. And while I hate Huckabee, I'm all for the Republican race continuing in strife and contention for as long as possible.

On the Blue team (do they still use the same colors, Red and Blue, for American Gladiators?), I can only say this: I only hope the current warfare doesn't result in me hating Bill Clinton in the foreseeable future. I don't want to. But out of devotion to his wife (and the fact that he owes her a few) and the desire to get back in the Casa Blanca, he's going all kinds of negative on my man Barack Obama and driving a generational wedge in the party. Were it not for the war, I would consider abstention on Election Day rather than voting for Hillary in the general election as a protest against the Democratic establishment.

The 90's were good days. But they're gone.

I mentioned the writer's strike earlier, and it makes me feel bad for watching couple of the new Daily Shows, like I'm breaking the virtual picket line. But Stewart's interview with Newsweek editor John Meacham was great. Meacham freely admitted the news media cover elections in a ridiculous fashion, taking out a second to agree that more people probably cover the elections on TV than watch the coverage. I agreed with Meacham 100 percent on the next item -- that the bias in the news isn't ideological, as most people think, but in favor of conflict and away from happiness. That was essentially the point of my undergrad thesis. Following the Daily Show, Colbert had a guest who wrote a book searching out the happiest countries in the world. As a war correspondent he spent all his time with the unhappiest people in the unhappiest places in the world. That's where the news is.

Well, it's 4 pm, time to have tea and write about cellulose. Say what you will about being boring, cellulose isn't unhappy, and by and large neither are the people who work with it. It doesn't think, it doesn't feel, it just makes plants strong.