Primary Day

It’s primary day here in the Bogs. The Bogs being located in Ohio means we’ve once again found ourselves bombarded with television ads, telephone calls, mail, and visits from the candidates.

The phone was practically ringing off the hook yesterday. People calling on behalf of Hillary and Barack, recorded messages from Hillary and Barack (who have suddenly become our new best friends even if we haven’t actually met them), and the usual offers to drive us to the polls if we don’t have a way of getting there.

I’ll be glad when today is over. I don’t like wishing my life away, but I do want to wish all this campaigning away. In a state where so many people are jobless, without decent health care, and where education is underfunded, I find it disgusting that all this money is being spent on ads when it could be put to better use. If it were up to me, there would be no more campaign advertising. People would have to learn about the candidates by meeting them, by watching or listening to the debates or the speeches given when they visit the state (which of course would require an overhaul of the media so that everyone has access to this stuff), and by reading about them.

But, you know, it isn’t up to me.

I can’t recall ever wanting to vote for a candidate based on their advertising campaign. In fact, I’ve been turned off of candidates based on television ads (negative attack ads, etc.), but never turned on. A candidate who spent their money trying to make the changes they yammer on about would impress me more than all this advertising.

The weather didn’t start out well for today’s voting. We had icy rain for a while. I think it’s pretty much settled down now. The storm wasn’t nearly as bad as predicted although flooding will still be a problem. I’m happy to report that, so far, there’s no flooding in our basement. With the snow melt and the heavy rains, I thought it might flood again. It’s still a possibility I’m hoping won’t come to fruition.

I’ll be going out later to vote. I meant to go early, but didn’t wake up (from a very heavy sleep) until 8:00am. The lines are usually pretty long in the evenings. Ah well. It’ll give me more time to think about who I’m going to cast my vote for in the Democratic primary. I still haven’t made up my mind, ads or no ads.