This Is Our Country

So much for my idea of a running diary of the NH primary. Its 10:30 and CNN has told me 3 things: 1) McCain won (again), 2) Edwards will come in 3rd for the democrats (they boldly called this one at 8:00:01... wow), 3) they're smarter than the AP, and refuse to say Clinton won the night, mainly because the college towns haven't reported, and 4) thanks to CNN.com, that my hometown of Keene voted for Obama.
Ok, so that was four things, but whatever, I can quite obviously count points as quickly as the good folks of NH can count votes.
Meghan doesn't get why I'm so into this - I didn't care about Iowa, and I probably won't watch the Florida results... there's just something about watching NH report in - I find it exciting. To her point, what does it matter in what order the votes come in, once they are tabulated, the answer will be the answer. Still, I enjoy watching how different towns are voting (and watching the CNN guy try and use his fancy new age telestrator).
The biggest disappointment of the night? Well, I'd say there are 3. First, Bill Richardson did terribly. Which I expected, but he entertained me with his witty, I don't give a flying crap attitude in the debate - every time he was given a chance to speak, he managed to waste half of it pretending to be shocked he actually had the stage.
I'm also wildly disappointed with Ron Paul... I thought he was entertaining too during the debate, but his supporters were chanting "End The Fed!"... I guess I need to pay more attention, but from what I gathered, he wants to rid us of that pesky federal reserve. Huh... seems... iffy. Oh well, my Richardson-Paul November matchup seems to be lost...
But the most disappointing moment was John Edwards being introduced to "This Is Our Country". This wasn't really disappointing for me, because I'm not really comfortable with his "My Wife Has Cancer" platform (I hear he may have other points as well, but that's the vibe I get...), but I gather he's trying to drive votes to other candidates - either that, or NO ONE on his entire campaign staff has bothered to watch a SINGLE NFL GAME IN 18 MONTHS. How can you use that song when there isn't a single person in America that would sacrifice 15-20 years of freedom just to get the chance to put a bullet in Mellancamp's head?? This has to be the biggest political gaff of the century... well, just after the Florida elections, Gary Condit, Iraq, Larry Craig... ok, well, its in the top 10. And his campaign manager needs to be fired, and the new one put in charge of making sure that the footage of that moment doesn't make it safely out of the building.
See? I am capable of saying I have 3 points, and then making them.
Here are the final developments of the night:
-CNN has finally stated that Clinton has won NH...
-Obama has just thanked the people of a number of NH towns for "going out in the winter snow" (it was a good 60 degrees out today) to vote. And now he's rambling again. Have I mentioned that he makes me uncomfortable too?
-I'm still feeling a bit queasy about hearing the Mellancamp song... someone needs to purge that from the Collective Universal Knowledge Base.
-Mike Huckabee still looks like Kevin Spacey, is still as creepy as Kevin Spacey,and I still swear it looks like he has a goatee, even though he's clean shaven, which is really, really weird. And he still came in 3rd (thank god...)
-There's still a shot that John Edwards, Barack Obama or Mike Huckabee might be our next president, and at this point, I'm with my father-in-law, I'm ready to leave the country if that comes to pass
-And lastly, Obama is still acting like he's giving a speech at the 2004 DNC... not a concession speech in the function room of the Howard Johnson.
Yup, maybe they're right...

This is our country.