The Silly Season is what my father used to call the presidential race and that was before we had wall to wall coverage and things were still by and large decided in back rooms. This particular Silly Season is getting pretty hot and serious at the moment as it looks like some things might get decided in the next 10 days or so as to who the respective nominees might be.
I've always been a political junkie for some reason and love the ebbs and flows, comedy and drama, (occasionally melodrama), and zaniness that goes on. This year I'm enjoying following much more of it on the web, reading and listening to folks who I respect (and some I don't) about their opinions. Most of those I'm enjoying reading or listening to are no way of the usual talking head persuasion but geek bloggers. Of course there are those who say that geeks and techies should keep their mouth shut, but then those are the same folks who get upset when a theatre guy chimes in with his thoughts as well. I play in both world's so I catch it all the time. To those I say simply, guess you don't get the whole democracy, constitution thing and need to go back to Civics 101.
At any rate, some of the fun I'm following is the NewsGang, which has now moved to a daily show, with call-ins from listeners (I may just do that if I can find the time to do so). I'm also pleased to see Mike Arrington and the TechCrunch gang get out front, conduct some interviews, conduct some polling and offer a TechCrunch endorsement for each party. I also really enjoyed this post by Michael Parkeh on recent events. But then I always enjoy Michael's thoughts and don't see why his political thoughts should be any different. I also really enjoy watching or listening to a debate and following the commentary on Twitter. And lastly, I enjoy reading and following Dave Winer on this as well.
I know there is great hope that the Internet can be a positive force for change in the political landscape. I remain skeptical about the positive part of that. In fact, if you follow any of my rantings here at all you know I remain pretty skeptical of the entire charade of politics.
And if you're wondering, I still think all the candidates still in the race have some things to prove. The Clintons are pissing me off almost daily. Obama one minute gets me going and the next leaves me cold. If there is hope of change, I think he is it, but he needs to pull it all together and quickly. On the Republican side, I'd like to see McCain take the nomination, but I have a feeling the economy is going to usher Romney in.
In reality, I'd love to see, and I think the country deserves, two brokered conventions so we could hopefully expose the entire game.
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