Presidential, Federal, Municipal, Oh My! - Election Tidbits From All Sides

There are so many elections and races going on right now, it's hard for the most fervent political fans to stay with everything that comes across the wire.

There are exciting races happening everywhere.

There is obviously the US Presidential elections, covered ad nauseum, the still-blooming federal election here in Canada, and for those of us in the Vancouver area, as I myself am, there is also the very intriguing Mayoral race to follow.

Whew.

First up, Vancouver Mayor.

I like the energy Gregor Robertson and his youth have brought to the campaign, and I have actually signed up to volunteer for him. He scored a huge boon yesterday when COPE and the municipal Green Party agreed to run a unified left wing slate against the NPA, and when COPE more importantly, chose not to run a candidate of their own, and instead back Robertson straight up.

That's huge, because a divided left wing is what handed Sam Sullivan the keys to City Hall in the first place three years ago.

Furthermore, I flat out disrespect the way Peter Ladner came into this race, sweeping the NPA's nomination away from Sam Sullivan, a man who just based on personal story, let alone being the sitting Mayor, deserves to run and defend his record. He will not get the chance to do that and has since stepped away from politics. It was a dishonest and immoral way to jump onto the main stage for Ladner, and simply, his whole campaign just feels dirty because of it.

Federal Election.

Dion is tanking, badly. He is running last in the province, and a shocking poll out today shows the Greens actually running second (!) to the Conservatives, and furthermore, they are only 2 points behind, 26%-24%

That is flat out amazing. Contained in that link is also the incredibly bad news for Dion and the Liberals, that they are running dead last in BC. The NDP support is flagging as well.

The real story in BC and across the country it seems, is with the Greens. This comes from a number of factors.

a) People don't really like Stephen Harper.
b) People think Stephane Dion is a drip, and they don't trust him.
c) Jack Layton comes off as a used car salesman.

People want some change, but they have nowhere to turn. The Barack Obama syndrome run amuck.

Jack can try to be Barack all he wants, and he can say the word change as many times as it can get past that 'stache, but he simply does not have the gravitas of the man across the 49th parallel.

There is no one fresh, except for Elizabeth May and her slate. She is benefiting from apathy with not one party, but three, and four if you count the Bloc, which I don't.

There has never been such a bland slate for a somewhat-fringe party to pick up gains from, but by God, this seems to be it. The Greens should do well this cycle, barring some unforeseen game-changer.

Harper is doing okay for the campaign he is trying to run, which is the 'make Dion look like shit' strategy. Dion is doing a lot of the job for him, but Harper is countering anything positive about the Liberals very effectively.

Bland, uninspiring campaign so far, except May, she is performing wonderfully.

Presidential Elections.

I honestly feel myself being a little soured towards the Presidential campaign right now. Firstly, the strict partisanship that everyone has aligned into, which completely squashes any kind of independent thought outside of what flows from Obama and McCain, which is then disseminated by talking heads and surrogates a thousand times over.

Secondly, I am a very rational person. I take everything, break it down, follow it to its logical end and go with it, and any time that doesn't happen, for me, is cause for a headache. McCain's lies, distortions and illogical explanations and justifications for those lies and distortions has caused me to reach for the aspirin too many times over the past few weeks, starting with the Palin nomination.

Mostly, it is her bare incompetence, but also the reasoning surrogates come up with as to why she isn't incompetent, such as, foreign policy - Russia is close to Alaska / energy (?), denials of the Road to Nowhere, especially after explicit evidence was found and distributed that she supported it, the whole Troopergate debacle that has now had about four different explanations, and the family rights anti-abortion advocate who says how happy she is for 'the choice her daughter made' when she wants to strip that very choice from those in the same situation.

And to see everyone lap it up has just kind of turned me off. McCain got a bounce out of it and is still running even with Obama in a lot of swing states and nationally. That honestly infuriates me. I cannot see how people can compare the two, on ideas, substance, actions, words, anything, and not see McCain is as transparent as a piece of saran wrap. It's like no one can see the incredibly grave risks posed by a McCain presidency, or they simply don't care.

The financial collapse of today has finally turned the attention off of lipstick and pigs and onto actual issues, which is a nice change of pace, and also completely out of McCain's comfort zone, which mainly consists of his POW time.

There are too many negatives with McCain, and so many positives with Obama, I'm not even going to attempt to fill the space. It would take the whole night.

I didn't mean to rant on the US race, but sometimes, you just have to go with what's going, and that went.

Bottom line, good news for Gregor Robertson, bad news for Dion, good news for May and the Greens, and bad news for anyone with a rational mind, and prone to headaches induced by right-wing talking points.