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The Headache of Reluctance has turned into the real thing. If I had hot water in my shower, I'd take a long one and see if that would loosen up my neck. As you may have already deduced, however, there is no hot water in the flat.
Again.
This morning involved a True. Irish. Experience. of heating the kettle and dumping it into the basin so I could wash. Delightful.
So, slow day of lying in bed sleeping and wishing my headache would actually leave.
Interesting phenomenon I've noticed the last few days talking US politics in Ireland (aside from my buddy R's failure to understand why it annoyed the three of us Canadians when my tutor repeatedly referred to "American" speech patterns - possibly 'cause there weren't any in the room) - Senator Obama's appeal doesn't seem to have crossed the Atlantic, at least not to the group of us sitting round the bar in the M on Friday night. We all preferred Senator Clinton, saving the lone American. Then again, none of us are particularly exposed to US media at the moment, which seems to have thrown its weight behind a "good" (Obama) vs. "evil" (Clinton) narrative in the Democratic primary.
Today, I came across this extremely comprehensive comparison of the three Democratic candidates, which confirmed my instinctive sense of Barack Obama as a candidate of much flash and rather less substance in the sense that he's a) less experienced b) certainly no more progressive than Clinton (and possibly substantively less so on issues such as healthcare reform) and c) not particularly electable - I think if he becomes the Democratic candidate, he will be shredded by the Republican machine and all the campaign appearances by Oprah and stump speeches about hope in the world won't save him.
The Republicans are shit scared of a Hilary Clinton campaign because there isn't anyone who doesn't know her business. That makes her a dangerous candidate because she has everything to win and nothing to lose in a character battle. Obama, on the other hand, has everything to lose - this link, taken from the one above, is a good example of the kind of game-playing that will cause Obama's campaign to implode under the weight of a full media press by the Republican Party. In my opinion, anyone who believes that Obama's ability to win the nomination demonstrates his ability to win the presidency is fooling themselves. Then again, I also believe that Obama's appeal flows from a desire among Democrats to find a mythic figure who will sweep away the evils of the past and by extension excuse the party and its supporters of their complicity in the actions of the Bush Adminstration - he's quite literally the candidate of their dreams. However, dreamland is not where the next election will be fought.
And that, gentle readers, is my 0.02 on US politics for the next while.
Again.
This morning involved a True. Irish. Experience. of heating the kettle and dumping it into the basin so I could wash. Delightful.
So, slow day of lying in bed sleeping and wishing my headache would actually leave.
Interesting phenomenon I've noticed the last few days talking US politics in Ireland (aside from my buddy R's failure to understand why it annoyed the three of us Canadians when my tutor repeatedly referred to "American" speech patterns - possibly 'cause there weren't any in the room) - Senator Obama's appeal doesn't seem to have crossed the Atlantic, at least not to the group of us sitting round the bar in the M on Friday night. We all preferred Senator Clinton, saving the lone American. Then again, none of us are particularly exposed to US media at the moment, which seems to have thrown its weight behind a "good" (Obama) vs. "evil" (Clinton) narrative in the Democratic primary.
Today, I came across this extremely comprehensive comparison of the three Democratic candidates, which confirmed my instinctive sense of Barack Obama as a candidate of much flash and rather less substance in the sense that he's a) less experienced b) certainly no more progressive than Clinton (and possibly substantively less so on issues such as healthcare reform) and c) not particularly electable - I think if he becomes the Democratic candidate, he will be shredded by the Republican machine and all the campaign appearances by Oprah and stump speeches about hope in the world won't save him.
The Republicans are shit scared of a Hilary Clinton campaign because there isn't anyone who doesn't know her business. That makes her a dangerous candidate because she has everything to win and nothing to lose in a character battle. Obama, on the other hand, has everything to lose - this link, taken from the one above, is a good example of the kind of game-playing that will cause Obama's campaign to implode under the weight of a full media press by the Republican Party. In my opinion, anyone who believes that Obama's ability to win the nomination demonstrates his ability to win the presidency is fooling themselves. Then again, I also believe that Obama's appeal flows from a desire among Democrats to find a mythic figure who will sweep away the evils of the past and by extension excuse the party and its supporters of their complicity in the actions of the Bush Adminstration - he's quite literally the candidate of their dreams. However, dreamland is not where the next election will be fought.
And that, gentle readers, is my 0.02 on US politics for the next while.
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