Superbowl for Geeks

Paul Johnson once said of Warren Harding that he "did not believe that politics were very important or that people should get excited about them or allow them to penetrate too far into their everyday lives.” President Kennedy is said to have echoed almost the exact same sentiment. Well, I'm with him on the latter if he was referring to resisting the all intrusive government that Alexis De Tocqueville spoke about, and I don't like the idea of being penetrated by anyone, be it a sniveling bureaucrat from a government oversite committee, or some escaped ex-con from a halfway house looking for the guy who stole the last rice crispy square from his lunch box. As for the first part, perhaps he didn't have time to get very excited about politics between his bumbling foreign policy fiascoes and his chronic philandering down at Peter Lawford's beach house. He should have re-thought his position. In fact, people got so excited about politics back in his day, they shot him in the head in the middle of the street in broad daylight. I mention all this because while some bemoan the seemingly endless and early electoral process, I welcome it the way a sailor welcomes a cold beer and a hooker named Mindy after a long voyage at sea.

The primary process is in full swing in the States. Seemingly seismic shifts take place on a daily, sometimes hourly basis. Who would have thought that 2 months ago, Fred Thompson would be nipping at the heals of Rudy Giuliani in national polls, only to fast forward to yesterday to see the once discounted Mike Huckabee, slightly ahead of John McCain, and Mitt Romney slowly eroding what little political capital he has left. Hillary Clinton is on a fast and ever sinking ship, being sunk by an inexperienced liberal smooth talker, who has yet to coherently articulate a single policy position. Obama loves the words change and hope. While speaking in front of a jam packed audience of young people, they began to chant "CHANGE CHANGE CHANGE". It was like he was being heckled by hundreds of pan handlers. And what about hope? Hope is great if you're waiting for those embarrassing little blood tests to come back from the clinic, but not so great as a central theme of a soon-to-be national campaign that is offering little else but a flashy Crest smile and an empty bag of promises.

This is my Superbowl. Superbowl for geeks, if you must. And count me as a geek, if you must do that as well. But for political wonks, this is like the seventh game of the Stanley Cup final, and we're in triple overtime.

Not much else to say on this weekend update, except I strongly suggest that you run out and buy a copy of Jonah Goldberg's first ever published book Liberal Fascism. It's currently the #1 political work in the country, and it is an important and historic tome which turns upside down almost 70 years of conventional wisdom about the political left.

Have a great weekend, I'll be busy moving into my swanky new digs where I plan to spend endless days parading about in a crested velour bathrobe, smoking cigarettes and making witty comments about the bourgeoisie. Embrace the Geekness.

Cordially

Joe