The Land of a 1000 Political Posts

With one week to go before the election, the political frenzy is going to be ridiculous. Well, far be for me to neglect my contribution to the blood bath.

I like to think of myself as an amateur politican. I vote. I comment. I critique. But I am not a Pol. I am just a teacher, who is a history nut and an amateur politician. To be a Pol, you'd have to contribute...and though I would love to do so...I know I haven't yet.

BUT, that doesn't mean I can't blog about this mess--and so I gladly plunge into the fray!

First, for those of you tuning in for the first time...I'm a Republican. And I'm a believer in peace through strength. I am generally a fiscal conservative, and I am definately a social conservative.

I think going to Iraq was perfectly legal, and that we did the best that we could when the question was before us. We need to stay in Iraq because abandoning the liberated Iraq to the chaos would be the only true failure of this war. It would be a waste of the lives that have been spent trying to establish a truly free society in a land filled with tyrants and oppression.

Yes--I am one of those Republicans.

Elections are interesting things. It seems to me that there is a problem with the approach the Left has taken with elections. They have persisted with denying the legitimacy of the party in power--in an attempt to gain political capital, instead of focusing on building a political message. The problem with this is...when you go around for 6 years claiming that the party in power is in power because they control everything and cheat in ways that we, the regular joes, could never prevent...if you win power after 6 years, what does that mean? If its impossible for the people in power to win without cheating...and you insist that they always cheat...and you beat them...doesn't that only mean that you cheated better than they did?

Sigh. This is the can of worms Al Gore opened up with his contesting claim. And the fact that recounts clearly gave it to Bush was ignored...once a shot is fired, it cannot be recalled.

Ah well; here is point of my "political" post: a prediction. Yes, I will put my money where my mouth is. With one week before the election, and very little chance of anything occuring to change the results, I will predict that the Republicans will prevail next Tuesday. I will allow for the loss of the House...but even that seems unlikely to me, and the Dems will definately not gain the Senate. I believe the Democrats have vastly over-estimated their "sweeping blue wave", which is supposed to cover the country. That is my prediction.

We'll see. The great thing about politics, when you consider them long enough, is that they don't matter as much as the media would have us believe (at least, in one respect). Its not life and death if for the next two years the Republicans are without power, neither will it be a golden age if they remain in power.

So, in a sense, one can make predictions about it as one would with a ball game. I've got the Republicans for a Hail Mary, late in the Fourth Quarter.