Something unusual has to happen in this country to get me to listen to Talk Radio. Democrats winning something is pretty unusual so today, I sampled about a half hour each of Conservative and Liberal radio chatter.
It sounded pretty much the same way it has every time I've tuned in lately: Conservatives angry but talking of victory, Liberals moaning about Conservatives. Randi Rhodes on Air America sounded unhappier than folks who had reason to wail. On some show, I heard a right-winger using the phrase, "blessing in disguise," over and over. When things don't go the way you wanted, there's something noble about trying to put a positive spin on your disaster…but there's also, sometimes, something dishonest…
You didn't want it to happen. You worked and donated money and prayed it would not happen. But it happened and now that it's happened, you have to figure out some way to pretend it was the best thing that could have happened. Who are you trying to kid? Me or yourself?
On all channels, I heard a lot of statements that tried to interpret the vote as about one thing and only one aspect of it. One guy was arguing that what was repudiated was not the Iraq War but this administration's handling of the war. Another fellow was saying it was Donald Rumsfeld who got the big vote of No Confidence. (It's amazing. Until I watched a discussion today on MSNBC, I'd been unaware that all errors in the war effort were errors by Rumsfeld. Apparently, no one else screwed up.) There were a lot of explanations for why we voted the way we voted but each pundit's ponderings seemed to come down to one specific issue per pundit…like millions of people from all walks of life only had the one reason among them. Me, I think America was speaking loud and clear that they want me to stop staying up this late writing weblog items. So I have a mandate to go to bed. Good night.