Election year excitement

I love it when it's an election year! I really enjoy keeping up with the developments and all the political drama of an election year. My favorite was during Clinton's second term (1996-2000?) when West Wing was still good. There was something poetic about seeing television art try to imitate life. West Wing was my comfort tv where I felt like there was hope in American democracy and that politicians were really good human beings who believed in the ideals of democracy and doing good things for this great land. Perhaps it was a sign of the times when West Wing went off the air. Or perhaps people became less optimistic towards the end of the Clinton era.

This year is already turning out to be quite interesting. D and I chatted about the Iowa primaries on the way to dinner last night and we both were surprised about the results. For Clinton to come in third and for Obama to come out sp significantly ahead was indeed a shocker. A lot of people I've been talking to have been saying that the Dems will probably go with A Clinton/Obama ticket with the latter as VP. I guess we'll have to see what happens in New Hampshire on Monday. I wonder if John Edwards will continue to push his more populist tone. I think it would be really interesting if Edwards is able to come out ahead of Clinton again. The Dems would have a big issue of who to run if Edwards continues to come out in second.

The new year has also begun with a lot of international turmoil. In addition to Iraq, Pakistan has become extremely unstable because of Bhutto's assassination. Kenya is also in turmoil because of how narrowly the incumbent won the election. It seems to me that people are up in arms all over the world because they trying to help their countries become more democratic or at the very least engage in the democratic process, but violence continues to get in the way. It is always amazing to me that in other countries, people give their lives to be able to vote yet here in the US, Americans often times take it for granted by not even voting at all. Or can I also assume that people who aren't voting are voicing their own kind of opinions about American politics?

Either way, this year will be politically exciting. I am hoping that some good change will occur.

One related and funny thing happened a couple of weeks ago. So I finally gave in and set up my Facebook account. Friends had been bugging me to let go of some of my worries about privacy and personal information getting out on the internet. I don't know if I'm being stupid but I decided to try it out. I figured if things started get hairy, I could always delete my account. So one of the applications I added onto my Facebook was this 2008 Presidential election quiz. The quiz took about 5 minutes and surveyed my stance on hot button issues such as universal health care, US troop withdrawal in Iraq, abortion, etc. I was surprised to find out that I matched 100% Mike Gravel, former Alaska Senator, now running as a Dem for President.
His website is located at www.gravel2008.us and if it were not for this simple quiz, I would not have found out about this Democratic candidate. I am amazed at how little news coverage lesser known candidates like Gravel have gotten and are getting in this race because I am technically registered as a Dem and even thought I've heard of Gravel, I had no idea that his political views were so in line with my own. Even though I really like reading news, watching news on TV, and listening to NPR, I realize how little I know about the lesser-known presidential candidates. I wonder about all those other people out there who don't have the time or resources to spend on "learning the issues"? Makes me wonder whether knowledge really is power especially if you can't or don't have the time to access it. Perhaps this can account for why so many Americans don't vote?