I Voted, How 'bout YOU?

That's right, through the wonders of absentee voting, I have already cast my ballot in this November's election. As this is my first presidential election, I was quite excited to cast my vote. It was, however, a bit anticlimactic casting over a month in advance and missing out on the exciting sticker, but I have done my civic duty.

I was watching last night's debate today, and two things struck me:

1) The debate was really boring. Beyond John McCain's often funny pronunciation of words (Taliban was the best) and Jim Lehr's continued attempts to have the candidates acknowledge the fact that they were in the same room and actually debating one another in real time, it was pretty tame. In case you missed it, or just want to relive the excitement, I would recommend watching the debate on the NYTimes website. They run a transcript of the text parallel to the video and have a check point, where any sketchy statements are fact checked. It is interesting to note that nearly all of the sketchy statements are McCain's.

2) Through absentee voting, I voted before the first debate occurred. Good thing I follow politics, I guess.

Following politics here has been interesting. I can catch NPR World Service on the Polish radio in my kitchen, and I read a collection of US newspapers online everyday (NYTimes and Slate everyday; The San Francisco Chronicle occasionally), as well as the German Süddeutsche Zeitung. This combination keeps me fairly up on any important happenings.


Despite my wide range of news sources, there is a pleasing distance which I have from the campaigns. Presidential less so, there is an intensive fascination with American Politics here, they are reported on more than German or European politics, the conventions received amazing coverage. The distance of which I am speaking, was especially felt when voting on California's myriad propositions. I had only heard of a few of them and had no attack ads running through my head! One of the main reasons I stay registered in Fresno County, is to vote against my Congressman, George Radonovich. I was rather disappointed to see he is running unopposed. Hopefully someday!