WARNING: Politics Ahead

I watched "Face the Nation" on Sunday, mainly because I just couldn't face "Meet the Press". (Also because my family have threatened to medicate me if I continue to watch "Meet the Press" and talk back to the guests constantly. You know, it's as if they can't hear me, those guests, and I make all kinds of extraordinarily cogent and breathtakingly incisive points, scoring heavily against each idiotic Republican until...never mind. Sigh. Anyway.) This week, former VP candidate John Edwards was on with Jack Kemp, also a former. They were supposed to be talking about how President Putin of Russia was turning into a bad guy, and what the U.S. should do about it, like subtract him from the G8.

As I was watching it, I was listening carefully to John Edwards. I had a few suspicions, and as John Edwards spoke, he confirmed them. He made a lot of statements using words like "moral leadership". He started talking a whole bunch about port security and how we still aren't inspecting even 10% of incoming shipping containers at our international ports regardless of who maintains eventual ownership. He started in on how Hurricane Katrina highlighted the problems of poverty in our country and hauled out his "haves and have nots" talking points. I recognized an awful lot of recycled phrases from his stumping speeches during the Kerry campaign. I saw him pull out the old Clinton "fist with the thumb up" gesture. Hey, I thought, this is a candidate talking.

I realized that John Edwards is basically what the result would be if Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter had a child.

Not too long after that, ol' Bob Schieffer picked up on the rhetoric and asked Edwards if he was a candidate for the nomination in '08. Edwards grinned and said he was considering it.

And I'm bored by that. I realize that the Democrats are going to have to go moderate to get back in the Big Chair in '08, and I hope they realize it, too. It saddens me that we have no Rock Star out there to wow us, even as a moderate. We have no power, no punch, no one to look to for charisma. We don't even have anyone in the wings in Washington already who is a mover and a shaker who is inspiring us now! Who is already there, a Democrat, who is snarking at the president and pushing things around? Who is nudging and shoving and saying, "What about our mission? What about smoking Osama out of his hole? What about this? What about that?"

And if this sounds real familiar, it's because it's the same thing I was bitching about back in August. How sad.

I just want to get over it all. Is there a support group, or do I need to take matters into my own hands and start drinking heavily? Is my next entry going to be titled Why Do the Democrats Insist upon Ruining My Life? I'm already off Newsweek; am I really going to have to give up "Face the Nation" and "Meet the Press"? I haven't had a political blog entry since my Governor Taft one. And he's on the state level!

Guns don't kill people; politics kills people.