I did not see the interview with Sara Palin on T.V. last night, but
Alessandra Stanley's description made me sure I would watch it on YouTube. Ms. Palin, she wrote, "looked like a student trying to bend prepared answers to fit unexpected questions", while Charlie Gibson, "had the skeptical, annoyed tone of a university president who agrees to interview the daughter of a trustee, but doesn't believe she merits admission". As opposed to rational intellect, the New York Times Coverage prepared me for an interview that would appeal cynical humor.

When I did get around to watching the interview I struggled the whole way through. The demeanor of both participants was so exaggerated that concentrating on the content was difficult, though there was not a whole lot of substance. Ms. Palin, though she did speak with the strength of someone sent on a mission from God, had prepared answers that she repeated with conviction. After a prolonged back and forth in which Gibson could not get a straight answer from the Republican Vice Presidential Candidate, Gibson informed her that he "got lost in a blizzard of words". I honestly did feel like I was watching a bulldog with lipstick (Is it insensitive if I tell the joke? Which party is P.C. now, or is that the whole point?) Ms. Palin never fell off the tight-rope she was walking, the Republicans picked the right person to wear the suit. It was like watching the next George Bush.

Palin's answers did sound like those of one who has been studying and since she has been huddled up with Senior Policy Advisors from the day the Republican Convention broke until the interview with Gibson, it makes sense. What does not make sense is how, in the cram session any foreign relations student would kill for, the potential Vice President managed to skip over the Bush Doctrine of Preemption. I guess her tutors must have assumed that knowledge.

Yesterday I read in a local paper an article by Tom Hayden that nicely articlated the meaning and hopes of the Obama candidacy.  Hayden is an influential and long-time progressive warrior who has done much to register urban communities to vote, been a california state legislator, and written numerous books.  As a prominate voice in the progressive community Hayden's nod to the Obama candidacy as a part of that movement is significant.  What is more interesting about Hayden's support is the way he articulates his positive stance on Obama.
As an actual member of the American far-left, Hayden has no problem telling us that Obama's views are centrist and that if we are looking for Obama to get into the Oval office and rearrage the instiutional furnature, we will be soarly dissappointed.  Hayden goes through a detailed analysis of Obama's position on the Iraq war to illustrate his point.  Along with Obama's position on Iraq progressives could also point out Obama's missed oppurtunity to spend the summer debating McCain, or his opting-out of public campaign financing.  In any event, Hayden's point and the reality of Obama's candidacy is that it is not ideal.  Indeed, Obama will be the first to tell us he is not a prohet or a savior, instead he inspirationally tells us that "we are the change we've been waiting for".
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My name is Eli Turkel.  I am 21 years old and have never written a blog entry before.  I have thought about it several times before but have never followed through on it.  In high school, a close friend of mine had a sucessful online journal that many peers and even some parents read.  People really liked his wriiting; I found it entertaining, but the stuff he wrote was too personal for my style.  I never wanted to have an online journal of my life.  What I have the urge to do is blog - to share my perspective on daily events and introduce readers to issues that peak my interest.  
I want to blog for my own sake.  After the re-election of George W. Bush I have felt increasingly out of step with the world.  Upset by the state of affiars I sympathized with the notion that democratic particiaption was not a helpful activity.  I considered the idea that the way to affect change was to drop out of mainstream culture.  Doing so had a drastic affect on my life.  I went to war with my family's values, battled them, and tried to conserve what I thought most essential about them while crafting a new way to percieve the world.  My endevor was well-intentioned, but ill-concieved. I thought we needed new answers and that those could not come from democratic values.  What I now realize is that the values which my family instilled simply need an articulation in our contemporary reality.  Instead of slipping away from the world I want to move along with it and give it shape. 
I think that blogging will aid in this decision.  I have always kept up with and reflected current affairs; blogging will help me catalog my thoughts on contemporary events.  With this blog I hope to share my lens of perception with fellow citizens in order to crystlize my own ideas.  in a word, I hope to keep a journal of my connection with the world.