Bloggle

It’s Groundhog Day in Pennsylvania. Punxsutawney Hill has climbed atop her dais and proclaimed to have seen a shadow of a chance of pulling this thing off.

What it means, of course, is that we’re now faced with another two weeks (at least) of discontented, wintry discourse; another fortnight of kitchen-sink strategies and maneuvering, political calculus and triangulation made all the more amazing given the campaign’s utter inability to grok the very simple math of delegates and popular vote.

I predict:

• Two more weeks (at least) of pundits proclaiming that, “It ain’t over, yet!” in a desperate bid to make the race appear closer than it really is, which is no closer than it’s been since the Potomac Polls.
• Two more weeks (at least) of commander in chief thresholds, padded resumes and mud-slinging.
• Two more weeks (at least) and untold millions of dollars spent on primaries that are utterly meaningless, but utterly necessary (we’re told) lest someone, somewhere, feel disenfranchised.

This is exhausting, even for a politics junkie.

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It was inevitable, really, what Farm Coffee has done:

THEY’RE ROASTING presidential candidates on Bill Hill, which is not nearly the same as grilling them.

Ashlawn Farm Coffee has introduced an Obama Blend, a “sweet, balanced” combination of “dark and light roasted coffees from Kenya, Java and the Americas,” and American Hero Coffee, “a light-roasted, highly caffeinated” brew that’s “edgy, strong,” made from beans grown in Vietnam. The latter’s redolent, you might say, of Sen. John McCain.

But what about a Hillary Brew?

That, says Carol Dahlke, Ashlawn co-owner and roaster, is … uh … in development.

In development. Hey… they aren’t trying to find a civet cat, are they?

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Today is VOTR day. To those of you who haven’t been paying attention to United States presidential politics — whether because you’re a non US citizen¹ or because you have your head buried in the sand — today is a remarkable day, and for a number of reasons.

Today the states of Vermont, Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island cast their votes in the presidential primaries (hence, VOTR, and yes; I’m inordinately chuffed that Vermont is listed first, if only for the purpose of a syncopic acronym.) In most presidential election years, this wouldn’t mean much; the race is usually decided long before Vermont’s very few delegates come into play.

But this isn’t any old race. It’s an historic event.

It’s quite likely that the outcome of this race will decide whether the oval office is inhabited by somebody — anybody — other than still another graying, white man. Unless, of course, something terribly unlikely occurs and John McCain is elected, presumably for the sole purpose of perpetuating the graying-white-man winning streak, as it seems he has little else to offer.

Even in that unlikely event, the outcome of this year’s presidential election is certain to have one result progressive-thinking folk can all get behind: the election of an individual whom the neoconservatives despise; an individual who may single-handedly cause the denizens of the hate-radio right to silence themselves, if only to keep from drowning in their collective froth and spume.

It truly is the dawning of a new day in America.

Notes and Links

1. Bloggle has a substantial body of international readers… most of them fellow coffee hounds. ↩

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