A Pilgrim’s Digression

I’m finding it really difficult to sustain much of an interest in the rest of this Presidential campaign.  That’s sad, because I recognize its historic nature, and I’d like to be able to tell my grandkids all the details of Obama’s road trip through Europe and the Middle East, and how he stirred our hearts and the world changed that day, etc., etc.

But I am missing it all.  I am not watching the news.  I am not listening to Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity.  I am not even reading the news online, save for an occasional odd story about millions in damaged money that mysteriously turned up at the Treasury over the course of several years.  The story begins like a treasure hunt: a man shows up at the treasury over the course of several years with thousands, eventually amounting to millions, of dollars that has been buried and damaged by the elements.  He tells Treasury officials the money was found while excavating a tree in Mexico.  The Treasury exchanges the damaged money for new bills wired to a bank account.

By the end of the story, it seems less a mystery than a story about an ingenious way for Mexican drug dealers to literally launder money.

But politics, politics…aye, there’s the rub.  I have no interest.

To some extent, I think the primary season was so exciting and anxiety-filled, there is little in the general campaign season to excite interest.  Obama seems more and more like a typical politician, and a rather stodgy one at that.  All the excitement seems to have gone out of him and his campaign, as if there can be no public displays of humanity inside the campaign bubble.  I suppose we can expect no more “dirt off your shoulders” moments.

Even holidays at Obama’s house sound about as enjoyable as a 19th century Christmas with the Ingalls family in the Big Woods of Wisconsin.  I remember reading the “Little House” books as a boy and being quite astonished at the lack of presents the children received for their birthday or a holiday.  Well, recently there was this report from the UK that the Obamas do not give their children Christmas or Birthday presents because they want them to know some “limits.”

It makes me wonder if the Obamas force their kids to spend Sunday being seen and not heard while studying Poverty in America.

I am all for setting limits on children’s gifts, however not to give any gift at all seems extreme and downright cold.  Why not set a limit of one gift, or two gifts maximum?  That seems more in line with the spirit of what Christmas means anyway.  Christ himself only received three Christmas gifts, and not one of them was a toy.  Seriously, what is a baby going to do with Frankincense?

McCain is no better, in terms of providing some degree of excitement to a boring campaign season.  I did listen to a little Hannity and Colmes last night, and the liberal commentator Susan Estrich commented that McCain’s campaign reminds her of the last days of Bob Dole’s run for the Presidency.  One of these days soon, McCain is going to slip up and let loose with a “Where’s the outrage?!”

On WMAL in the morning last week, Fred Grandy remarked that he believed John McCain was on “mood enhancers,” by which he meant anti-depressants, specifically Zoloft.  McCain’s behavior seems too subdued, his mood seems too even.  He has no feeling for anything that happens, no matter the subject.  Even when he seems genuinely angry, such as when he is criticizing Obama for not recognizing the success of the surge, his anger rarely rises to the point of feeling.  He simply looks tight-lipped, like a man who is tamping it all down, all that emotion, right down into the pit of his stomach where it will become his first major heart attack.

All in all, there has been little to sustain interest in this campaign over the months of June and July.  But the summer is winding down.  School begins for my wife in a little more than two weeks, and for my son the week following.   College will be back in session about the same time.  Labor Day is around the corner.

And we all know there is often some big event that occurs in August, September, or October that can galvanize public interest.  There was 9/11, of course, and all that followed that fall…but also Katrina.  Gas prices have to some extent roiled the otherwise still waters of the summer, but I don’t know if that issue will extend into the Fall, now that gas prices are coming down a little ($3.75 for regular at the Sheetz where I buy my gas in Virginia).  It seems ridiculous to think that $3.75 is cheap, but it is a relief to finally see the numbers go down, even if only a little.

Anyway, what will be, will be.  The months ahead may be full of turmoil and anxiety, if Obama can’t pull definitively ahead of McCain, and then I will start paying more attention.  Right now, I am just enjoying the long weekends, the pleasant weather, and steak on the grill.