It's a bird ... it's a plane ... it's Super Tuesday

Uh, oh. Entry number two, and I'm already getting political. You have been warned. Women and children first.

There are ten Democratic primaries today. Although the results aren't entirely in yet, it looks like Kerry is going to take the ticket. In fact, that has been pretty clear for a couple of weeks now. The only question remaining is whether Edwards will prove himself to be popular and charismatic enough to make sense as Veep. If either Sharpton or Kucinich think they have a snowball's chance in hell of getting the nomination, he needs to up his lithium.

I am, it seems, not a very good citizen. I didn't even know until today that Illinois's primary (my state) was on March 16. New Jersey and Montana's aren't until June 8th. Why even bother? New Jersey's primary probably consists of Lou and Ethel Frogstein pulling out a rubber stamp and mailing the paperwork off a week late.

After today, the race will be over and forty percent of the states still haven't held their primary election. My vote, plus that of everyone in Illinois, Texas, Florida, etc. will be irrelevant. So I'm not even going to bother.

I'm not suggesting we have all the primary elections on the same day. But it's not like the candidates are having to waste a lot of time riding the railroad from one state to the other campaigning. With the wonder of television, a couple of national debates between all the candidates would be sufficient. Spread the process over three weeks; one-third each week. There is no reason for the entire process to take six months. Six months!

In the interest of full disclosure, I'll admit I was completely behind Dean. He excitied me. He was well-reasoned, rational, and practical. He seemed to me to be someone that could make the necessary, tough, and possibly even unpleasant choices when necessary. Kerry bores me. He's a great Senator, I'm sure. But a President is not a Senator. Long, pontificating speeches are not what he's there for. Edwards is too young. Sharpton and Kucinich are really there for comic relief. Dean got me fired up. Interested. I actually cared about what was going on. But the press and the pundits never took him seriously, and after The Night of Embarassing, Red-faced Yelling, it was all over. Sigh.

This is shaping up to be an ugly election year. Bush is already pandering to the Christian ultra-right. Kerry is giving a speech, but I fell asleep a while ago. And this is what it's going to be like until November.