Despite being nearly a presidential term removed from the U.S., I’m still an election junkie. This one has been a real cracker so far and I keep abreast of the news and commentary from the U.S. through podcasts from my favorite pundits. I’m a little embarassed to admit this, but on a weekly basis I listen to the following podcasts for my U.S. politics fix: Meet The Press, This Week with George Snuffalupagus, MSNBC Countdown, The Slate Political Gabfest, KCRW’s Left, Right and Center, The Radio Factor, Washington Week, NPR’s It’s All Politics, Common Sense with Dan Carlin, The New Yorker’s Campaign Trail and Drop Your IQ with Sean Hannity. Sometimes I think I may be overdoing it a little.

Maybe overexposure is the source of my festering frustration with the 2008 U.S. presidential election. It’s not the media’s obsession with trivia (like cartoons, potential first spouses recipes and flag pins), I’m used to that. While listening to an interview with Barack Obama on PBS this morning, I was reminded that the press just doesn’t have the attention span for anything that requires more than about seven words to explain. Gwen Ifill, a journalist who I respect, was actually doing a pretty good job with the Democratic nominee – asking intelligent questions and not getting bogged down in the peripheral nonsense. But then she got to the flip-flop question.

I’m so tired of “flip-flops” as an electoral issue. The 2004 election was full of this non-issue and I had hoped that we had outgrown it, but then I had hoped we had outgrown fear-mongering, name calling, wrapping politicians in the American flag, etc. The only thing that’s different this time around is that both candidates are accused of being flip-floppers.

My question is, when did changing your mind become such a bad thing? Isn’t that one of the problems with the current U.S. administration – a bull headed determination to do what they think is right, regardless of facts or common sense?

Who hasn’t changed their mind, even in terms of major life philosophies? If I hadn’t changed my mind since high school, well I quake to think where I would be, but it certainly wouldn’t be where I am today. If I hadn’t changed my mind about some of my lifestyle choices along the way, I may not be here to rant today. I doubt that there’s a single person reading this who hasn’t re-evaluated a choice that they’ve made and come out better for it?

Why, then, do we expect more from our politicians? Why do we have the expectation that after once uttering an opinion they should stick with it for life. Why is it not OK that you believed something, evaluated the situation and changed your mind based on new information. Frankly, I find it reassuring that both candidates appear to be open minded enough to consider an alternate position. Perhaps if that had been the case for the last 8 years then my homeland wouldn’t be where it is today – bogged down in two wars, trillions of dollars in debt and in an economic tailspin.

The long list of things that I find less than reassuring about both candidates will have to wait for another post.

 
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