Conspiracy Theorizing III — Now it gets personal
Given my enthusiasm for the subject, you can imagine my delight when I checked in on the Corner last night and found that the latest “proof” that Obama, once elected, will bestow upon himself title Chairman of the Supreme American Soviet and seize all your JuJuBees is an interview conducted by my dear friend Gretchen Helfrich, on her late, much lamented Chicago Public Radio show, Odyssey. If you’re interested, you can hear all of Obama’s appearances on the radio station, here.
By the way, on at least one of those occasions, I happened to be walking down the hall and saw him about ten feet to my left. I knew who he was, as he was my brother’s State Senator. I was tempted to say hello and introduce myself, but then figured, ah, what the hell, I want that cup of coffee now.
As for me, I spent an hour this morning lining up to Vote Early. It seemed a wonderful expression of popular enthusiasm for democracy, and I was all smug and stuff, and then I got to the little voting station and looked at the touch screen ballot and realized, wait a minute, I live in Cook County, Illinois, home of the nation’s most stalwart one-party stranglehold on power, during an election when one of its own is running for President. I have no more chance of affecting the outcome of the election for any of these offices, down to and including Recorder of Deeds, than I do of getting a letter inviting me to enroll at Hogwarts. That said, I did vote for the Green Party candidates for the Water Reclamation Board, because they had really cool names. Go, Rita Bogolub!
October 27th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
Am I mistaken, or wasn’t Sen. Obama a Wait Wait guest a couple of years back?
October 27th, 2008 at 8:08 pm
I understand that the RNC wanted to make JuJuBees a bumper sticker issue, but “from my warm, sticky hands” left too much to the imagination.
October 27th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
For your edification, “Bogolub” in many Slavic languages means “God-lover”
October 28th, 2008 at 6:36 am
Speaking presidentially, it’s unlikely you will affect the outcome of your state’s electoral college votes, but you can contribute to (or detract from) the perception of legitimacy (or ill) inherent in the overall popular vote.
I’m waiting for the, er, pageantry of Tuesday.
October 28th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Cook County Democratic party sent me a “We’re all in this with Obama” flyer that really ticked me off.
October 28th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
Sen. Obama was a kickass Wait Wait guest!
What’s Gretchen Helfrich up to these days?
October 28th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
Saw the best bumper sticker ever tonight (which might qualify as a new definition of socialism): Tax the rich so we don’t have to eat them!
October 29th, 2008 at 7:04 am
A little “vote for the cool name” story:
In the Appalachian Ohio college town where I go to school, there was a man named Jim Pancake was running for county commissioner along with six other candidates. Voting on the Commissioner’s race took place on the same ballot as the Ohio presidential primary this past March, so there were ton of students who registered to vote because they wanted to vote for Obama in the primary. But all these students didn’t know anything about the commissioner’s race or any of the other small elections going on at the same time. Consequently, I heard stories from all of my friends about how they voted for Obama, but left the rest of the ballot blank, except for “Pancake,” because the idea of voting for a pancake on a ballot was really funny. Jim Pancake ended up TYING in the election and it had to be decided by a coin toss. He called heads, won the toss and is currently the county commissioner. His funny last name won him that election.