These last few weeks, I’ve been reading political news obsessively. Not just the NYTimes and the WaPo, but the left-wing blogs as well: Politico and Daily Kos and HuffPo and TPM. I follow the local political gossip on ColoraoPols. I check the latest polls on Pollster and 538, searching for trends and differentials. Worse still, I’m up in the middle of the night almost every night: what’s the latest news from North Dakota, Montana, Florida? I keep up to date on senatorial and house races all over the country especially where the red candidate is a horror or is running a particularly loathsome campaign: Dole, McConnell, Bachmann, Sununu, etc. My days (and my nights) are no longer my own.
I’m not the only one. Many of my friends are doing the same thing.
Not without reason. I believe that the republic is at stake. If McCain/Palin is elected, I fear for the century and for the country and for the planet.
On days when I do something for the Dems (knock on doors, deliver those flyers that they presume to call "literature," fold-and-stuff) I sleep better. But I won’t be at peace until Virginia is in the Democratic column. Only then will I breathe easy. Who knows, maybe I’ll be able to get through the night without logging on to the internet to learn exactly how many points Obama is ahead in PA according to Gallup and Rasmussen and Harstad and CBS.
I ran into my friend Mike S. a few days ago. He had just been to the doctor about his high blood pressure. While he was all wired up he started chatting with the nurse about Sarah Palin. His blood pressure shot up 40 points.
I wonder what’s going on with mine.
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