Hey, it's the last day of September. That means we've got just about thirty-something days left until the presidential elections. In years past, this weblog would have been chock full of political commentary during the primary, the conventions, and the lead-up to the first presidential debates.
So why the silence? In part, I've had my mind on other things. My work, my family, virtually anything else but politics. I know where I stand, and I have a pretty good idea of where the candidates stand - or fail to stand. Not much has happened in the last three months to change that.
The other part is that, frankly, there are many others who are doing it better this cycle. In 2000, there were just a handful of us blogging the elections, and just a finger or two weren't from the left hand. This year, huge volumes of commentary, from just about every possible political viewpoint, saturate the internet in general and the blogosphere in particular. I feel I have little to add that's not been said elsewhere, at least about politics.
Of course, that won't stop me tonight. The debates, and tonight's debate in particular, are the best chance of the two major party candidates to fully lay out how their positions differ on the issues that matter most to Americans. After tonight, if the process works, we'll have a better idea of what each candidate hopes to do with the next four years (and not just their opinions of how the last four years have gone). Americans can decide which vision they want implemented between now and 2008. If the process fails, we'll have no better idea tomorrow than we did this morning.
Because tonight is such an important part of the process, I intend to follow it closely. The best way for me to do that is to share it with you, my reader(s) (can I still use the plural?) as I follow along.
I have a pretty good idea of which party (including the two major parties and various alternative parties) most closely matches my position on foreign policy and national security. But no party matches it exactly, so we'll see how far off Bush and Kerry are from my perspective this evening.
Posted by wasylik at September 30, 2004 09:02 PM | TrackBack