The A.D.D. Election

Last week it turned out that Hillary Clinton had had to lend her campaign five million dollars. I couldn't believe it. And I meant to write about it. But now several days have passed and no one seems to care any more. When I first heard about the loan, I thought it was big. In fact, I thought it was Big. I thought that if the news about the loan had come out two days earlier, just before Super Tuesday, it would have hurt Hillary. Also, it seemed to me it must have been completely traumatic for her. Let's face it, the Clintons are not exactly famous for picking up checks. I don't think they've paid for a Coca Cola in the last thirty years. The whole episode made me start thinking about women and money, and I could definitely have written an entire piece on the subject if I'd had time, but by the time I had time, no one really seemed to be talking about it; they'd moved on.

And so had I.

This is the attention-deficit-disorder election. Everything is happening at warp speed. Everyone is bouncing around on the net and changing the channel. Everything is shifting so quickly that there's almost no point in trying to keep up, but I'm trying. The other night, at a Super Tuesday gathering, I was so busy trying to keep up that I changed the channel and I managed to crash the entire cable system. It was not my fault. I kept saying that. I had changed the channel very carefully, because I know from my personal life how much trouble you can cause by crashing the system. Everyone at the party was good-humored about it, even though it took about forty-five minutes for the cable system to reboot and they had to move to the bedroom. Meanwhile I went home and flipped from channel to channel desperately trying to figure out what had happened on Super Tuesday. The day it was all leading up to. The day that was going to change everything. The day it was going to be decided. You remember Super Tuesday. It was seven days ago. Before the loan. Before the end of Mitt. Before David Shuster said "pimping" on television. Before the Virgin Islands and Maine. Before we all realized there was no avoiding learning about the superdelegates. Before Hillary fired her campaign manager.

By the way, I turned out to be wrong about the $5 million loan hurting Hillary, because now it turns out she raised $10 million this week. Women and money. Big subject. Too bad I'm no longer focused on it.

Why is John McCain so strangely subdued?

I have a fantasy about myself and Barack Obama. My fantasy is that he calls me up, asks for my advice, and I tell him to stop looking down at people. It makes him appear supercilious, especially on the debates. When he's on Meet the Press, it sometimes seems as if his eyes are closed. Maybe it's the set. I don't know. I'm sorry this is the sort of thing I focus on in my political fantasies, these petty cosmetic things, but I do. Sunday morning we changed the channel to Face the Nation, and there was Mike Huckabee. Such a funny guy. Loved the bit about eating squirrel. Of course I disagree with him on pretty much everything and there's no circumstance, including some sort of I-Am-Legend scenario, wherein I would ever vote for him. But I swear, if he were a serious candidate, I would be having a fantasy about telling him to fix his teeth.

Buy orange juice.

Less than two months ago, everyone I know thought that Rudy Giuliani had the Republican nomination sewed up. And then, suddenly, he was over. I've never seen anyone vanish so quickly. I wasn't surprised, though. Rudy wasn't having any fun and you could tell: it was as if he believed he'd died and gone to hell. Running for president has to be the worst job there is. Last week everyone who was running for president was hoarse. Bill Clinton was on 1010 WINS, and he was so hoarse you couldn't even tell it was Bill Clinton. Even I am hoarse, just from talking about the election.

Here's something British journalist Peter Pringle said recently that bears repeating: he said that watching Bill Clinton in this election made him realize he could not spend four to eight more years worrying about whether Bill Clinton would get home at night.

Sunday morning, as we were changing channels, we saw George Bush on Fox. He looked great. He laughed in a strange inappropriate way when he was asked if he had approved waterboarding. You know that laugh, that weird heh-heh laugh. He seemed cheerful and peppy. And why shouldn't he be? He's not running for president. He didn't have to live through Super Tuesday.

You remember Super Tuesday. It was about a zillion years ago.

Comments

[chendri887]

The ADD election? Try the ADD country, and the ADD/bipolar world. People with ADD and bipolar disorder are the CEOs, political leaders, and power brokers in this nation and elsewhere. Their mental illness is never really framed as such, only inflicted upon society as the norm. And because people with ADD often have trouble empathizing with others, if you don't fit in with this hyperkinetic paradigm, you are dubbed "loser" or ignored altogether. God help those of us who cannot keep up with this kind of super-capitalism developing that Erich Fromm wrote about so presciently fifty years ago.

[CanadianforObama]

My friends and I were just recalling Clinton's daily drama stunts, with each one pushing the previous one back into ancient history. Hard to remember them all, aside from each one being increasingly desperate.

I hadn't thought about my reaction to the events of the past while as A.D.D. Great analogy.

[kellygrrrl]

as much as it all feels like Frenzy right now, I think that is indicative of the energy building - as though we all just regained brain activity.

Personally, I feel more like I'm suffering from ADD when I try to watch the Republican Primary. I tried to tune into the Super Tuesday results, and I felt like I was in middle school Social Studies class studying ancient civilization and trying to pretend like I cared.

[TAC]

"Sunday morning, as we were changing channels, we saw George Bush on Fox. He looked great. He laughed in a strange inappropriate way when he was asked if he had approved waterboarding. You know that laugh, that weird heh-heh laugh. He seemed cheerful and peppy. And why shouldn't he be? He's not running for president."

And he will be well rested, if the need to declare martial law arises, although, as he said "If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator."

[Bulbul]

Perhaps in the History of United States, Bush is the only President who did not show ,a rapid presidency aging !

[WillBFair]

Yes, it has moved fast. Too fast. But am I understanding this? Obama never passed a bill or held a meeting. He invented some bizarre rhetoric to fool young people, about the red States joining the democratic party, financial interests letting him remake the campaign system, and bringing the country together while he brings republican smear tactics into the democratic party, with ridiculous promises there is no way he can keep. He tweaks and calls his own a large group of policies created by the Clintons when Bill was a leading intellectual in the DLC. He has almost no qualifications for the office, but young people compare him to MLK, LBJ, JFK, and Lincoln himself, and are voting for him because he’s young and gives a good speech.
He might even win against Hillary Clinton, a woman who helped create and pass a national legislative agenda, which reversed the debt and deficit, generated government surpluses, hugely advanced minority rights, and created massive prosperity not by throwing money at the defense industry and running the government into the red as republicans do but by moving the levers of industry and letting the market do the work, all while fending off the worst media smear campaign in history.

[krissymax]

WillBFair - I think you've summed up Obama's candidacy perfectly. What are people thinking? Wisdom that comes with age, real day to day experience in the White House, real experience in making change for 35 years that doesn't matter anymore.

I find it so funny and agree with Nora's post. Rudy was the frontrunner. John McCain was left for dead. Who knows knows what will happen next?

[politicsnut]

She has no wisdom! Forgot the vote for the war? The most important vote in her life and she got it WRONG and won't apologize, offering ridiculous excuses!
Bush/Chene­y/Rumsfeld­/ neocons "experience" got us in this horrible war!
No Judgement, Obama was right, he was brave, he's a leader!

[Bulbul]

In TN, we were paying attention, Hillary won by a decent margin.

[whadiyano]

WillBFair: I find your comments about Obama cynical and inaccurate. But you're right about Bill Clinton's moving "the levers of industry" - he moved them overseas. Ever hear of NAFTA?

[politicsnut]

You are right on the ADD. Forgot the vote for the war? The most important vote in her life and she got it WRONG and won't apologize, offering ridiculous excuses!Bu­sh/Cheney/­Rumsfeld/ neocons "experience" got us in this horrible war!She has No Judgement! Obama was right, he was brave, he's a leader!In fact most women forgot about all the Clintons' scandals, pardons for money, WH for hire, Bill's deals with arab sheiks, how both of them got so rich (upwards of $50 million) with shady deals in the last 6 years, etc...We've been there, done that.The Clintons are laughing all the way to the Caymans!They've made $50million+in the last 6 years alone and won't release her tax records. Obama does not have 5 million in his bank account because he is an honest man. Lets start anew : OBAMA 08!

[zizi]

WillBFair,
I think you ought to do a modicum of research before you post anything about either candidate's legislative record. It only takes a quick look at the US senate records online to realize that longevity in congress does not equal productive legislative achievements. I looked for myself and I suggest you do the same. You just might be enlightened be in a better position to post the TRUTH about what the candidates have each actually accomplished as legislators. Thanks

[NC4Obama]

Well the media seems to have ADD but also a very short term memory.

[ChimpmasterDJ]

Talk about ADD! 1/2 the Democratic Party voters seem to already have forgotten the war!

Now THAT is a serious case of ADD!

[politicsnut]

You are right on the ADD. Forgot the vote for the war? The most important vote in her life and she got it WRONG and won't apologize, offering ridiculous excuses!Bu­sh/Cheney/­Rumsfeld/ neocons "experience" got us in this horrible war!She has No Judgement! Obama was right, he was brave, he's a leader!In fact most women forgot about all the Clintons' scandals, pardons for money, WH for hire, Bill's deals with arab sheiks, how both of them got so rich (upwards of $50 million) with shady deals in the last 6 years, etc...We've been there, done that.The Clintons are laughing all the way to the Caymans!They've made $50million+in the last 6 years alone and won't release her tax records. Obama does not have 5 million in his bank account because he is an honest man. Lets start anew : OBAMA 08!

[ndolomar]

as always, superb prose. thanks.