The Dance Begins...

It’s nothing new!

Despite all of the talk to the contrary, people seem to discuss elections earlier and earlier.
It’s the equivalent of the cruise wear that shows up almost immediately after the new year.
Why is that?
Why do we insist on compressing the calendar?
Because it’s something to do.
With the big games out of the way, something has to occupy our time.
And at this particular time, we are all collectively tired of all of the unjustified spin that this government has produced and a lack of really good news!
Sure, the economy is up but how much is that going to do for the little guy on the production line.
Stock prices go up because companies either sell more or do a good job of cutting costs, hiking earnings and dividends.
But there are too few who are benefiting from such things these days.
In fact, most of us who I speak to are scared out of their proverbial draws.
Costs are going up and income has remained static…
Good jobs are simply going aroud looking for you….and the big grand-daddy of all trend-makers, the housing market looks like it got hit with a sledge.
The truth is that most of us are having a hard time keeping up.
The banks are upping their demands and their interest rates and credit from the plastic
Purveyors is harder and harder to come by.
So, that leaves most of us in an increasingly fragile position. No wonder people are calling for change.
So this year, in particular, the dialogue starts early: Who is our white knight who is going to deliver us from evil and debt? That is the big question.
And, restless as we are, we are beginning to look for answers.

Right now, the cast of players keeps growing. We’ve got Villisek, Kucinich, and a couple of others just ready to take off even if they may not be household words as yet.
The best known of the announced being Edwards who has seemed to have cared out a nice little niche focusing on poverty which could turn out to be the deciding issue if Iraq’s problems ever get resolved or we get our boys and girls back, whichever comes sooner.

For the time being the rest seem to be doing their dance around the light weaving closer and closer to the admission pass: An announcement of intent. Right now, Barak seems ready to make an announcement any day now and Hillary keeps gathering information. At what point do you say, I have enough to form a position? Joe Biden said that he will run and while Barak has no experience, Biden may have already had too much exposure.

It may be, too, that the people have had it and are looking for a Deux Ex Machina to toss the past and move into the future with an untarnished hero like Barak but it’s too early to say.

Howard Dean must be looking at al of this and saying there but for the grace of God. Amazing how a speaker designed to eliminate peripheral static can do in a leading contender.

In any event, the dance has begun.

And when the music stops, everyone will be scurrying for chairs.

We’ve still two years before the election. It is a wonder if there will be many left at the end of the probes, the articles, the mistakes that are bound to loom up because they are commonplace in every campaign.

In the meantime, we chomp on our gummy bears, pick a good seat and wait it all out….

The democratic process seems more at times, for us the viewers, than for the candidates
Who sometimes find that two years of campaigning can be a humbling experience.

Les Aaron