It is not as if I am addicted to it, rather it is just that it is sooo available.
That computer, with its vast assortment of websites to choose from and lightning-fast downloads, makes it so easy to get my, well, fix.
Yes, OK, I admit it: I am addicted to the American election.
It began innocently enough three years ago while I was watching The Daily Show on television (yes, a real television and not living stream from a website … this was before, well, you know). Jon Stewart’s guest was a young man of poise and vision and passion.
Barack Obama is actually my age, but his freshness stood in sharp relief to his gravitas of an elder statesman who has the ability to get things done. I told people he would be president one day.
One year later – nine years sooner than I thought was possible – he was announcing his run for presidency.
“But this is Hillary’s year,” I thought. Oh well, it is a good trial run for him.
The rest of the story has unfolded with twists and turns, good guys and bad guys, heroes and false heroes.
It is like a cross between an Aaron Sorkin production and The Truman Show.
If I miss a day, I lose such a huge chunk of the narrative.
I began my descent into this addiction with those gateway websites such as CBC, the Globe and Mail and Christian Science Monitor.
But that wasn’t enough. It was too mellow. I started to crave the hard stuff.
That is when I started following campaign posts by the writers of Reuters and the Washington Post.
That was OK for a while, but then I read a Peter Worthington editorial in the Whitehorse Star and it was so knee-jerk negative toward the Democrats that I just had to find, find, find balance.
So, that is what finally pushed me to www.huffingtonpost.com.
Oh my, it was like coming home. Not only did the good people of Huffington Post point out the truth, they also held up the right wing pundits for the ridicule they deserved (I’m looking at you, Rush Limbaugh).
And, through its web pages, I was introduced to Keith Olbermann, of MSNBC. He is the one American liberal who gives as good as they get.
There were stories there, too, from respected papers from around the world and, when those headlines didn’t provide enough balm for what Elisabeth Hasselbeck said this morning on The View, there were blogs.
Blogs! The antithesis to responsible journalism!
Look at me! I am using exclamation points! I loathe exclamation points! That’s not me!
I don’t have a problem. I have a big problem.
I used to pooh-pooh American newspapers because they declared, for all to see, that they were Republican or Democrat. Canadian papers don’t do that. Sure, they lean, but they have the decency to hide it … or try to.
But now I see the attraction. There is nothing wrong with preaching to the choir when the choir really wants to be preached to … except, perhaps, when someone like me has a problem.
Today, however, I have taken the first step: I have admitted I have a problem.
Now I must make amends to all of those I have ignored and for the bandwidth I have burned through.
Fortunately, the election is next week and temptation will not face me first thing every morning.
Good bye, William Ayers. I’m glad you are a reformed terrorist.
Good bye, fist bump. I’m not sure why you were controversial, but oh well.
Good bye, Sarah Palin. Just wait until you get home, bwahahaha!
Good bye, POW card. You had your limits.
Good bye, Bittergate. How did you ever rate a “gate” status?
Good bye, job security at Saturday Night Live. You will have to start writing your own material now.
Yup, next week it will all be over … with an Obama landslide that nets him 360 electoral college votes, baby! You read it here first.
