Since my surgery last week (I’ll spare you the details, but it sucked. SUCKED), I haven’t been doing a lot besides popping pain pills and watching TV. I’ve watched so much TV in the last 9 days that I’m seeing not just repeats, but thrice-peats, on every single channel.

Because nighttime is the worst, I tend to be unable to move enough to even change the channel, thus rendering me helpless to my parents’ whims and the oddness this Nation televises every four years: The Democratic Convention.

Politics often mystify me, even though I try to learn as much as I can from a few different outlets, so I was prepared to feel stupid in the wake of so much government and strategy mumbo jumbo (plus, I was taking a lot of pain meds the last three nights…they make the world seem complicated). But instead of feeling like a lame invalid who knows nothing, I felt something stronger rising up in my chest (and no it was not barf) — I felt laughter. Incredulous laughter at the sheer ridiculous of this political phenomenon.

If you haven’t caught the Convention yet — and you really should because stupid or not it is history — let me break down how most of the speeches go:

Democrat (usually a Senator, Senator’s wife, or, if it was last night, the Vice Presidential nominee): I am proud (applause) of being a Democrat (GIANT APPLAUSE) and thanks to all of you (applause) for being such damn good human beings (applause) and believing that this country has turned to sh*t under Republican rule! (GIANT APPLAUSE). Barak (applause) Obama (APPLAUSE) is our future (Applause lasting 5 minutes) and John McCain (boos) loves Bush (GIANT BOOS) and is old (applause) and wants to stay in the old way of thinking. (boos) YES BARAK OBAMA!! (Giant applause and shot of Bill Clinton with his mouth open) Read More »

From the moment John Edwards dropped out of the race in January, everyone knew this would be no ordinary primary season. Remaining contenders Obama and Clinton were very similar politically and both were making history by challenging the twin traditional societal norms of racism and sexism.

The upshot being of course that as the death knell sounds for the Clinton campaign politicos are not only discussing how she lost politically but also how the “female-thing” influenced voters.

I myself am hesitant to immediately point to sexism as the cause of her loss—just as I would have been equally reluctant to point to racism had Obama lost. Yet the uphill battle that Hillary’s campaign faced in the news media is a reminder of the difficulties of being a dominant and ambitious woman in today’s society.

While during the campaign we heard the tired old argument that a woman is too weak to be president especially during a time of war and that world leaders wouldn’t respect her (umm… yes let’s just discount Margaret Thatcher shall we?), Hillary came under intense fire for her personality as a woman. Read More »