Wednesday, October 15, 2008

The Oilmen Are Giving Back.

This morning I paid $3.599 for Super Premium Unleaded and found myself momentarily grateful that the oilmen were in charge. It's remarkable how every time there are elections, particularly when there is bad economic news, this seems to happen. The oilmen are also responsible for this incredibly fucking bloody and horrific war, the increasingly radical growth in extreme inequality, a lifetime of debt for my children, and the probable death of the planet. I could go on. So a little cheap gas once in awhile is really the least they can do.

The conversation that for me seems to happen three or four times a day in different ways is, "Is he going to win?" Which comes with a horrible and brief nod to the possibility of a McCain Presidency.

This election should be a landslide for Obama. The polls say it. The electoral map says it. But there have been two close ones lost under suspicious circumstances, and most people I know don't want to set themselves up for that again. It's like every thinking person on the planet is, in some way, holding their breath.

Today I talked to a political geek friend who said Obama's got the stolen election thing covered. The Candidate is a constitutional scholar, he said, and the ground is already littered with lawyers who have anticipated everything. His people are smart and have resources. Obama's going to win. Things are very, very bad, he said, and no one wants daddy to be in charge. Daddy's a freak. I'm thinking, maybe I can breathe, but I hardly dare.

3 comments:

Retromancer said...

What I find worrying is the Right's acceptance of defeat and its preparations for the day after. What do you think the ACORN flap is about?
It's about discrediting the inevitable win.

Goodbye election, hello civil war...

Anonymous said...

I hope that if the Dems win, they (from Obama on down) will not let the American public (Joe the non-plumber, etc) forget that the mess we're in and will continue to be in was caused by greedy neocons. If not, Joe, etc. will instantly forget, blame whoever's in office at the moment, and kick all the Dems out in 4 years. If the Republicans indeed do think they're going to lose, they'll be counting on the miniscule American attention span. No civil war; a depression will prevent that.

Unknown said...

Oil men don't give back. They restructure pricing in response to market conditions. Just as decent people don't gamble in the pews at church; capitalists wouldn't dream of playing politics by manipulating the holy market place.

And retromancer, these people's contingency plans have contingency plans. They accept no defeat. Their ACORN gambit is primarily a dodge to draw attention from the thirty real voter fraud schemes that they have in play. Discrediting an Obama win is very secondary, if somehow they fail to steal it wholesale, as is their new tradition.

Speaking of contingencies, if this does come to civil war, I think we should look for an opportunity to renegotiate the end of the first one, and give the South an opportunity to leave. That might just solve everything.