Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Politics as usual


For eight years I read every left-leaning political book I could get my hands on just to keep from going crazy (it probably made it harder, though). I was like the opposite of a tea bagger. Or a birther. I was one of those bleeding heart liberals that actually thought Al Gore won in 2000 and then that Kerry pulled it off in 2004 (I even read books and articles with proof, you know, science, science that explained step-by-step how I was right). The Iraq war seemed like a pretty stupid idea to me and sucking dry the biggest surplus in our history, ditto. I thought that maybe somebody should be punished for 9/11 and watching from my job in health care the profits of the drug and insurance companies balloon while our patients suffered seemed a bit backwards. So I kept reading. But when Obama won a year ago I took a little break. I took a deep breath. I started reading some other things, novels, some fiction, and well, okay, Obama's two books, where the politics, at least, was wrapped in pretty bows. But yesterday I returned to my old ways and picked up the new book about the campaign. It is great so far, makes you realize what an incredible feat it really was, how all of the odds were stacked against him and that how, when surrounded by some extremely talented (and lucky) people, almost anything is possible. Then today, Mr. Perfect President came out from behind my rose-colored glasses and said war, war, war. He sounded like W.

Even Karl Rove cheered.

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