Staying Focused

In the course of my blog writing (this semester on politics), I've had an easier time staying focused on my previous topics. Those were: politics (fun, during the midterm elections), finances (pretty interesting), the dissertation (absolutely horrible experience, will never write about writing again!), home improvement (harder to write about and stay motivated than it seems), and, finally, back to politics, which is a topic that makes me wonder, sometimes, why I didn't major in political science.

So I played hooky last week: I didn't post a thing. I kept thinking that I could come around to it, that something political would strike me: the Franken/Coleman recount (according to the Huffington Post, the difference is now down to 13 votes out of 2.9 million); the Martin/Chambliss revote (the polls close tonight at 7 p.m.); the Obama cabinet; even the big bailout(s); there's plenty of fodder out there.

So why am I having so much trouble this semester? I guess it amounts to what everybody else in this class is dealing with: when one juggles classes, grading, dissertation, husband's new job, husband's surgery on Friday, dogs, planning the Christmas Iditarod (our drive to Colorado), and so on, it seems as if politics has been put on the back burner. I mean, Obama won, right? I have finally had the opportunity to relax, something that I didn't think would happen since the midterm elections when everything ramped up.

Here's something that has been bugging me, and it's probably not worthy of a full-length blog post, but it's about post-election hypocrisy: Politicos around this great nation seem to be changing their colors. I have been expecting Keith Olbermann to put George W. Bush at the top of his "Best People in the World" this week because he finally owned up to it, saying that, as you can see here in the article from the LA Times, "Bush tells ABC News: 'I was unprepared for war'." Next thing you know, Bill O'Reilly will be stating that it's a good thing there is separation of church and state. No, wait, he just said that this week. That wasn't his opinion 5 years ago. Give kudos to Olbermann again, who pointed this out on Countdown. This week, O'Reilly stated that he was "a secular guy." Just a few years ago, here's what O'Reilly said: "These antichristian zealots talking Judeo-Christian philosophy today reject that honor. But in reality, they are cowards. They hide behind the bogus separation of church and state argument to batter any public displays they find offensive. Led by the ACLU and aided by secular judges the anti-Christian Americans are insulting and denigrating a key part of America." I expect by next year both O'Reilly and Bush might join the American Atheists, but that might be an insult to my husband, a proud atheist. To see O'Reilly vilified by Olbermann, check out this link:



So it seems as if the next month and a half will be absolute mayhem: some politicians will be falling off the radar (let's hope that's Sarah Palin, Larry Craig, Fred Thompson, Michelle Bachmann, Rudy Guiliani, and even Bill Clinton) while others will be making appearances for the first time. And the pundits will continue to harrass and harangue. I'm looking forward to learning more about Ron Paul, though, because I get the feeling he won't be going away any time soon. He's like Ross Perot on steroids, which isn't a bad thing, now is it?