Anybody else…
…experiencing a lull in their interest in the 2012 election? I am.
I have little doubt it will spark up again. But the idea of comparing the latest of Perry’s gaffes to the latest of Romney’s flipflops to the lastest of Biden’s stupidities to the latest of Obama’s bamboozles fills me with ennui at the moment.
Instead, let us rejoice at “Dancing With the Stars.”
No, really. I happen to think that JR Martinez and Ricki Lake are excellent dancers, considering they’re not professionals. Yes, I know the show is a piece of trash. But that’s why I like it. We’ve all got to eat bon-bons and unwind sometimes.
Here’s Ricki and then JR, each doing the quickstep (it’s quick! And it’s got a lot of steps!):
I adore JR. What an upbeat personality, and the guy’s a natural dancer. If you’re not familiar with his amazing story—for which the word “inspirational” might have been coined—please take a look.
My interest waned when Mrs. Palin announced she was not throwing her hat into the ring.
Love her or hate her, her presence in the campaign would have been an active catalyst for strong debate focused squarely upon the traitor-in-chief – exactly where it should be.
It would not have mattered so much that she would not have been victorious, as delicious as that would have been, but her intercession would have been critical.
That is not to be, unfortunately.
I like Cain all right, but not passionately.
Romney would be a step up from Obama, certainly, but he is focused upon being president, not serving the nation.
Perry: wrong man, wrong time? Who knows. In any case, I’m not passionate about him.
What I am passionate about is defeating Obama, all those who surround him, all those who believe in him, all those who support him. I have to will myself to keep from performing the PIT maneuver on those cars I see on the highway still displaying Obama 08 bumper stickers – especially those printed by MoveOn.org.
Same here. Palin was my first and only choice. (I don’t blame her a bit for not running, though.)
I am not at all impressed with any of the other candidates. I haven’t watched any of the debates. I think the format is ridiculous. The candidates exchange soundbites and talking points, while dodging “gotcha” questions from the MSM moderators. It’s the 21st flipping century, and this is how we choose our leaders? No wonder we’re in the mess we’re in.
The other thing that bugs me about the debates is that they seem to be calculated to anoint a clear front-runner before the voters get to have any say in the primaries. I find that fishy as hell. It’s as if the fix is in.
I don’t watch Dancing with the Stars, but I have been watching the baseball playoffs and World Series, which is just about the only TV I watch nowadays. It’s been a great Series so far. The first five games have all been exciting and fun to watch. Of course, it would be better if the Phillies were involved…
Sorry I have never sunk that far in my life to go there reality and real issues seem to find my time and I am better served for it.
The election is a flatliner but I stil cannot watch that show…I prefer the catty Flipping Out!
Anybody else…
…experiencing a lull in their interest in the 2012 election? I am.
Me too. Maybe my fatalistic apathy is a refuge from my pessimism.
I too have come into the doldrums about the election and don’t know whether I’ll come out of it. After reading Michael Lewis most recent book ‘Boomerang’ I truly think it doesn’t much matter who’s elected. We are in for it in ways we can’t image. Was having dinner last week with several friends in D.C. and the husband of one observed I was more subdued than usual about the election… I suggested he read Lewis’ book.
Getting on to the more sanguine topic at hand, I too love JR! As you say, a natural dancer, a real man and a true blue inspiration. I believe he will win this competetion. And no matter what it says about me, I love this trashy program! Thanks for posting.
Our older son (16) is enchanted with (conservative/libertarian) politics, and follows all developments with rapt attention.
I don’t. I’m voting for ABO, and am not concerned about the details. If Beelzebub himself runs against Obama, I might reconsider. Maybe.
The ennui is widespread. The campaign season just keeps getting longer and longer, which adds to the burnout. I know that the old joke goes that the next Presidential campaign starts the day after the Presidential election, but we’re getting closer and closer to that being a reality.
I don’t think most journalists or pundits see the forest through the trees. Or, perhaps they do, but just don’t care. I’m burned out on daily polls (Gallup, Rasmussen, Harris Ipsos, Zogby, Quinnipaic, Marist, etc. ad nauseum) nationally and from Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida. “Oh my God, Perry is slipping! Cain is rising!” Except that two months ago it was “Bachmann is slipping, Perry is rising”. And two months from now it could easily be “Gingrich is rising, Cain is ‘done'”. I’m sick to death of premature op-eds declaring the ‘collapse’ of this or that candidate.
We’re still over two months from the Iowa Caucuses!
There has been one, and only one, constant in this already agonizingly long campaign: Mitt Romney will either win the nomination or come in a close second. Who the principal ‘not Romney’ opponent will be very much remains to be seen. And regardless of the earth shaking gaffe of Candidate X of the day, or the excellent performance of Candidate Y in the Nth debate, this unknown is going to be with at least until a bunch of weary, snow bound Iowans (myself included) trudge to their caucus locations in January. Indeed, it may remain unclear until likewise snow bound New Hampshireites cast their ballots.
Does anyone recall just a scant eight years ago, when Howard Dean was a “lock” for the Democratic nomination? It only took a bunch of Iowans, plus a crazy scream to deflate that. Instead, John Kerry (who was I believe fourth in most national polls behind Dean, Clark and Edwards) surged within the last 48 hours before the caucuses, blew away New Hampshire and never looked back.
It’s not over until it’s over.
I’m rooting for Hope in the short term, because she’s a hometown gal (Yeah, I root for the Dolphins and the Heat, too) but I’m rooting for JR for the Win.
As far as the Primaries go, I miss Palin, too, but we have what we have. I worry about Cain, but like him, and am Tepid about Romney, though he is capable.
I’m becoming increasingly concerned that Obama will win because the economy is so bad. So many people are unemployed, in debt, and broke with little hope for a way out that the Democrat nanny state will look like the only way to survive.
BB:
I still to this day use Dean’s scream as my incoming e-mail alert sound.
Rickl: Funny. 🙂
Mr. Frank: That certainly is a possibility. The student loan “relief” gimmick reveals the core of Obama’s 2012 strategy: offer palliative handouts to enough select groups which, while they will do nothing for economic growth, will satiate them enough to win over their votes.
I’m reminded of one of my favorite quotes from Tocqueville:
“The American Republic will endure, until politicians realize they can bribe the people with their own money”
That describes Obama’s campaign and his Presidency in a nutshell.
Ennui is a good word, plus increasing anxiety.
I am feeling like Charlie Brown in his attempt to kick the football. As each new Republican candidate or possible candidate has appeared, I have hoped he or she is one I could be enthusiastic about. Each time, after taking a good look, I have been disappointed, either because he chose not to run or because he or she has been such a let-down.
Of those in the race, Gingrich at his best is far above all the rest in my opinion. However, he is too often not at his best, too often erratic. Any of the rest would be better than Obama but none of them engender any enthusiasm in me. And I agree with Gingrich, that the way they are running against each other is providing Obama with campaign ads against whoever does get the nomination. So I have a rising concern that the Republican candidate will lose to Obama.
I don’t watch ‘Dancing With the Stars’; instead I go out and dig rocks out of my road and pound gravel into the holes.
Ignoring the election and on to DWTS. I gave it up a few years ago because I was tired of looking at all the female anatomy, but thanks, Neo, for bringing these two clips to my attention. You know what I love? I love that Ricki’s so light on her feet and so comfortable in her not-skinny-like-a-boy skin. I am really tired of the pressure from all sides (mostly women) to get rid of the curves. I’m a Nana to almost nine and it seems like a lot of my friends are dieting and exercising themselves silly to get back to their eighteen-year-old figures. I would like to lose a few pounds, but I don’t really want to go back there again.
And I hadn’t heard of JR. What a gem. I love him. It’s amazing that he is able to move with such agility, because I’m sure there must be lots of scar tissue from his burns. I hope he wins.
In the last few years, my wife has forced me to watch DWTS and as the season progressed each year, I’d start to like it. I do like good dancing and I claim there’s a lot of that on DTWS.
I haven’t watched this year so far…started out with just too many weirdos. But they seem to have been voted off now, so, with Neo’s encouraging clips, I’ll probably start watching again.
Concerning the election, even I am starting to get bored with it. But when I see/hear one of Obama’s cutesy, snarky remarks on what is his taxpayer financed campaign tour, I get revived, politically.
I absolutely detest that man.
Will Rogers never met him.
“”I’m becoming increasingly concerned that Obama will win because the economy is so bad.””
Remember Nov 2010. If anything, next Nov will be amplified. And i don’t think even the staunchest liberal wants to hear that man’s hollow voice for another 4 years.
I also felt a big letdown when Sarah Palin decided not to run.
Having to make a pick from the remaining candidates has made me a tentative supporter of Herman Cain. I am unsurprised that Cain has jumped out to a commanding lead. I think that he’s picked up a large percentage of Palin’s supporters.
This also makes me suspect that the media have been deeply underreporting support for Sarah Palin. For months we’ve had a steady drumbeat of stories with the subtext that Sarah Palin’s poll numbers are so low that she was the only potential candidate virtually guaranteed to lose to Barack Obama. I don’t think that this was actually the case at all, and if this coverage played a part in her decision not to run then the strategy worked. Of course, she hasn’t ruled out another VP run, should Cain want to go that route.
What turfman said!
I believed Palin was the anti-elite, anti-socialist, most honest and common sense candidate.
It’s just perpetual outrage to be a political news junkie and I get enough outrage working in civil litigation and seeing how white collar crime pays. The corruption in our professional class has become worse and worse as more and more Republicans and Democrats have no moral grounding.
But, like turfman, I am passionate about defeating Obama, and like turfman, also have to prevent myself from “PIT” maneuvers. Maybe it’s a male thing that derives from the instinct to protect family. Maybe that instinct edges up to the nation level and the desire to use violence becomes an actual problem when the outrages just keep coming. The problem becomes how to endure and not lose your humanity or character through bitterness. I’d rather just go to outright male war, not this war of deception and programming and watching our programmed kids act out their programming. That’s Obama: a leftist programmed dysfunctional kid acting out.
“Quickstep” is the competition ballroom name for Foxtrot, the staple of social dancing from 1915 to 1965, when social dancing stopped. You also see steps from Charleston, Shag, Balboa and other vintage ballroom dance steps in there.
I love to dance, but hate competition. There are a few places to go dancing, but basically if I want to dance, I have to put on the events myself!
Anyway… Foxtrot is easy, anyone can do it. I wish we ALL danced, like we did before 1965. Dancing was how most people met back then – instead of in a bar or party. Great way to get to know someone, with a little innocent holding and touching. If you get the chance, dance!
Thanks for posting these, I’ve avoided DWTS but these two are classic.
Huzzah! for them bon bons 🙂
I wish I was as enthusiastic about any of the GOP contenders as I am about JR. He communicates such joy and is a thorough delight to watch dancing. He has remarkable grace and you can tell he genuinely feels the music.