The Pink Shoe Diaries

Well the Democrats were on fire tonight at the debate in Phoenix. Al Sharpton stole the show, as usual. And the Arnold and Rush Limbaugh jokes flowed like wine. The shocking news, revealed by Beast Woodruff, was that only 32% of voters consider themselves Democrats. I would find this depressing if I hadn't stopped believing in polls /surveys last week. I know, how Truman-esque of me. In any case, there were some real gems among the responses this time:

“Republicans love weapons systems, Democrats love people” - General Wes Clark, on helping military families


“If you want to live like a Republican, you have to vote Democrat” - Dick Gephart, on economic policies


“George W Bush and Tony Blair are holed up in the Oval Office acting like they’re the World Summit.’ - Al Sharpton, on unilateralism.


“I’m a nasty beast” – Judy Woodruff (just kidding, but its true nonetheless)

Dean was great, as always. The other 7 candidates were kind of sticking it to Wes Clark and Dean (presumably out of fear) and Dean has the best mad face by far. You can tell even though he has this stiff little smile on his face, he's thinking "f*ck you!". Dick Gephart had me for a while, he can be really well spoken at time and he seems the most desperate to be President. But he lost me with his “Spread the American Dream” spiel. I am so tired of this Western obsession with spreading all things American around the world. First of all, it’s incredibly ethnocentric to believe that what works here will work in countries on the other side of the earth. Second of all, the things being spread around the world are unfortunately not the economic or social benefits of being an American, but our pop culture. An example? Two months ago I was on a mountaintop in Lebanon, eating a zhatar wrap on the side of a dirt road, and from a tiny transistor radio I heard the strains of 50cent’s “In Da Club”. Some people that I’ve talked to about this think it’s great. “The linking together of the world through pop culture”. Only it’s completely one sided. It’s more like a mass proliferation from one country. And let’s be honest, our pop culture is not really the best foot to put forward.


When all is said and done, we all just want Clinton back. :-(