A Brief Detour Into Politics

Fact 1: Election Day is next Tuesday in the US. (Canadians got their election over with a couple of weeks ago, and the rest of the world have their own schedules, of course.)

Fact 2: I'm going to be at Walt Disney World on Election Day.

So, since I wanted to vote this year -- it's a fairly big one, in case you hadn't heard -- I had to get an absentee ballot. I finally filled the thing out last night, signing my name sixteen times, darkening a host of little black ovals, and sealing several envelopes inside each other. And I mailed it this morning.

So my part in this election is done. I do want to encourage Americans to vote this year, particularly if they care about the outcome -- if you don't care, don't bother to vote, since you'll do it wrong.

And I'm sure nobody cares, but...I voted for a Democrat for a national office for the first time that I can remember. I was rooting for McCain back in 2000, but I just couldn't get behind the 2008 version. (Something similar nearly happened back in 1992, but the elder Bush eventually convinced me to stick.) The final straw, I guess, was Sarah Palin -- if that's the kind of decision McCain is going to make, I don't want him to be my President. If he'd picked even Tailgunner Joe Lieberman, I probably would have voted differently.

On the other hand, I voted the straight Republican ticket otherwise -- my local government incumbents, who're doing a decent job and have a chance to stay in office, and the current sacrificial lambs to Frank Lautenberg and Bill Pascrell. (The latter is my guy in the House -- I'm in a district that includes the local city, which means it'll go Dem until and unless the office holder is found in bed with the proverbial dead girl or live boy.)

So: vote in your own localities, and good luck in getting representatives that you can stomach.