In Which I Hate...Yeah, Pretty Much Everyone.

Well, Hillary won PA.

Can I ask you guys something?

Where are the pitchforks? Where's the outcry? Where's the protest over these lame ass candidates?

I have been and will continue to vote for Obama, but I am not one of the crazy Obama people. Mostly, it's a social experiment...what happens when you elect a smart person who actually talks and acts like a smart person to the Presidency? Could be good, could be bad. I am definitely down for someone with a working knowledge of Constitutional law in their toolbox. Plus, I'm an snotty intellectual elitist, so having a professor in the White House appeals to me, if only as a function of my hope that one day we nerds will rise, inherit the Earth, etc., etc.

Still, I am left so dissatisfied with the utter lack of balls involved with this election. Maybe it's just because it's my first cycle away from DC, so I'm not inhaling so many Kool-Aid fumes, but it seems to me like the pandering has been at a fever pitch from day one, and that these campaigns are being horribly run. McCain's people can't rein him in, and frankly, he's that old man kind of fighty, which isn't conducive to the running of a country at war. You need to be able to project controlled fightiness, not actually be a crotchety old asshole who is blinded by their military experience.

Hillary...oh, Hillary. I liked the Clintons fine...I met Bill Clinton once when he came to speak at Mechanics Hall when I was in high school (high school? My brain can handle it being any earlier than that, so let's stick with it), and everything they say is true - the magnetism, the charisma, the blah blah blah. If he just could have kept his shit in his pants, he could have been remembered as one of the great Presidents, I think, and yet, here we are. I aspire to that level of schmooze...sans escapades of course, but you know what I mean. I even liked Hillary - my parent's elder dog is named after her, since we got her the day after the election. But my God, what Hillary has become. Again, it's an issue of appearances...you get into politics for one of two reasons. You either want to change the world, or you want the power. I think both are fine, and I think a blend of the two is ideal, but what you absolutely cannot do is baldly show how much of a power whore you are. Again - it is fine to actually be one. You just can't show it.

Especially...ESPECIALLY...if you are a woman.

As many of you may have noticed, I am in fact a woman, and I'm a woman who has been fully engaged with the political process for about as long as it's possible to be at my age. You can talk all you want about equality and the Great Triumph of Women's Lib and how Nancy Pelosi has shattered the glass ceiling (horseshit, PS), but the fact remains, and may always remain, that women in politics are not the same as men in the same sphere. You cannot afford missteps, and even more than that, you cannot grasp so boldly at power. Women with overt power are terrifying to much of the old establishment...this is a fact, no matter how politically correct you want to be about it.

I wish I could teach the women of the world how to be female and be powerful at the same time. I'm not the queen of the known universe, and I'm no national political powerhouse, but I've accomplished a lot in the 25 years I've got under my belt. I've done all this mostly in four inch heels and dresses, with my hair and makeup done. You don't have to be frumpy, you don't need to be meek and quiet. There are limits, sure, but if you only have to deal with those limits, instead of worrying yourself to death about how this guy is so established and so powerful, you're in a state of normalcy...everyone has obstacles. Having tits has nothing to do with that. You have to own your personal power, and learn to read power dynamics quickly and accurately, and if you can do those things, you're 80% there. The rest is situational.

As hopefully everyone can see, HRC is not really getting this. The suits, they are tragic. This is not only because they are so...Boca, but because she's clearly dressing scared. Even more worrying is her reluctance to own herself...you know what, Hillary doesn't kick back on a Friday night with some shots of whiskey and target practice. And that's okay. But to pretend you do is to lie to people you're supposedly helping, or trying to help. She's not the only one who does this, obviously, but to me her trespasses are the most egregious, because men do not accept that behavior from women unless it's honest. Further, my primary reason for not voting Hillary is that the Middle Eastern cultures we're dealing with do not approve of, nor respect, female leadership, and this war isn't going to be over in four years. Electing Hillary will remove the ability to negotiate or even to argue with the Iraqi government, and close the channels of effective communication with surrounding governments as a bonus. It's just not the time, unfortunately. So now we've got American men calling bullshit, foreign EVERYONE ignoring her, and oh, PS, we're mid-war. Oops.

I am just left cold by these candidates...I'm most disappointed in Hillary for not being what she could be, but no one really does it for me. No one has the sack to socialize healthcare, no one has the guts (incumbents included) to take a realistic view of the war and figure out how to get out without the Middle East exploding (Ever think about this? Unsupported Iraq = Iran comes in = Israel engages = Hamas and Hezbollah geek out = uh oh), and no one seems to see what's coming down the road viz social security, education, the National Debt, the economy in general, or anything else. Why can't I have a candidate who engages in an intelligent manner with these topics, and why can't we force debate on them? This isn't a game, people, it's not the dress rehearsal.

Is this really the best we have?