Differing levels of sorrow
Tonight is election night in Mendocino County and the gods that control the U.S. presidential race seems to have taken note of the timing and finally declared Barack Obama the winner of the Democratic nomination on the same night. Hillary Clinton, apparently living in an endless self-delusion of her own making, seems to think that if she holds on long enough, she could still be the nominee, provided something terrible happens to Obama. (She basically said as much last month.)
I do understand that running for president is extremely stressful and I know I could never do it. I also do feel bad that again there will be only men on the ballot in November, but when I step back a bit, I realize my sympathy only runs so deep for the current senator, wife of a two term president and a millionaire a hundred times over.
"More than 300 million Americans living at this hour will never be president," wrote George Will in his May 18 column. "They will never even be senator from New York. That office is not chopped liver."
It's the same way I can't feel too bad for rapper Nas when people shake their heads with sorrow and say that his first album "Illmatic" was so good that no one will ever stop comparing his future releases to it. I guess I feel sort of bad about this, but then again he did get to make arguably one of the best rap albums ever made and then build a 15-year-long career based on it.
And judging from the jewelry I saw him wear in his last video, he's not ready for food stamps just yet.