five more days and counting

I've always found politics kind of fun, and I started young. The summer of the Watergate hearings was an unusually rainy one in Maine, so I watched them. There wasn't anything else to do. I was seven years old. By the time I was 12 I had read both volumes of Nixon's memoirs. Though I started out planning to study music, I ended up a political science major in college. I couldn't wait to vote in my first presidential election, way back in 1984.

Today? I cannot wait for the upcoming election to be over. If only these things could be nasty, brutish, and SHORT! I planned a wedding in eleven weeks. Surely presidential campaigns need not be much longer than that.

I love voting. Since I had children I have always taken a kid with me to the polls. It's good practice for the kids and the polls workers, typically older ladies, seem to be nicer to me when I have kid along for the ride. 

This year marks the first time I have ever seriously considered not voting. From the time Hillary Clinton conceded until John McCain chose Sarah Palin as his running mate, I was pretty sure I would stay home on election day. The Palin choice pushed me over the edge to Obama. Even if McCain had chosen someone remotely reasonable, I probably would have landed in this place eventually. He just hastened the process. I probably should thank him. Well, perhaps not.

I have seen some folks on twitter wonder what we will all have to talk about on November 5. I really don't care, as long as it isn't presidential politics. Anything else will be a welcome relief.