Election Day

Yes today is the day (although one student missed my bonus question last week asking what event of national interest was going to occur today). I'm kind of excited by the idea of voting, though the choices this year don't inspire me. Regardless, I take voting seriously and, as is my custom, I'm wearing an ironed shirt and tie today. Needless to say, my students were freaking out. They assumed they were in trouble. I told them they weren't, though I think a little fear in the student population is not really a bad thing.

So anyway, today is voting day. I've made my decisions on the BIG race and most of the state and local races. I'm still not sure why we vote on the "license commissioner", but after my horrible experience registering my Jeep a couple of years ago there's no way I'm voting for the incumbent! The oddest contest, though, is the race to replace longtime U.S. Rep. Bud Cramer. I'm still suspicious of the way in which this opening arose. See Bud was one of those Congressional lifers, but then, all of a sudden, he up and decide NOT to run for reelection, just a week or so before the deadline for entering the race. Local conventional wisdom held that there was some scandal in Bud's closet and we all waited for it to pop out. Nothing has happened, though, so now I'm thinking it was all orchestrated so Bud could hand pick his successor. Given the short time, there was only one Democratic candidate who had the name recognition, the money, and the desire to get in.

Though there was only one Democrat, there was a well-connected Republican just waiting for his chance to take over from Bud. Now the race has turned NASTY! There are charges of intentional undertreatment of cancer patients, softness on terrorism, ties to big-money oil companies, etc. The funniest thing, though is that one of the candidates recently has steered away from the mudslinging, choosing to emphasize his own good points. He's conservative, independent, pro-life, and anti-tax. Did I mention, this is the DEMOCRATIC candidate? Strange world, huh? I'm just glad it only comes around every couple of years.

Peace out.