"And one thing I will say for George Bush, he has disabused me of my old belief that it doesn't really matter who's President"- a blogger named Barlow

Aside from the report I had to do on Millard Filmore in third grade (when the assignment was states, I got Delaware, so, yeah,) I don't remember thinking about politics until grade five. The year was 1991, and Bill Clinton and a bunch of other guys whose names still escape me (Dukakis? Buchanan? James K. Polk?) were in the running for President of the United States. One day, the third most hated teacher in the course of my plaid, pleated skirt-wearing career wrote the names of all the candidates on the blackboard. She then proceeded to ask each student for whom he or she would vote if 10-year-olds could, in fact, vote. I calmly and confidently replied, "I don't care." Scary old Mrs. Kraus bellowed "You don't...CAAARE?" in front of the entire class, and being the stubborn bastard that I was and am (now I REALLY wasn't going to care,) thus began my legacy of political apathy, ambivalence, and plain old unawareness.

Though I was an excellent history student and even eeked out a 4 on the American Government AP exam, my interest didn't improve much over the years. I can't say I remember a damn thing about the 1996 election, and though I filled out a voter's registration form in 2000, my first eligible election, I never bothered to ensure that it was processed (it wasn't, but I was in New York and Wisconsin went Democrat, so it was not my fault, ok?). But then, by the grace of Jon Stewart, my amateur political analyst pal Perplexa, and my extreme distaste for all things fanatically religious, I have become a person who not only registered to vote after minimal (ok, a few months of) prodding by friends and family, but was able to hold my own in an hour long, albeit very drunken, debate with my boss' Bush-supporting boss.

And now, with my newfound political fervor (we're talking in relative terms, here,) I bring you a couple of articles that are so good and persuasive that 1., even I was able to complete them and 2., they are going straight to The Parents in Wisconsin who are still, for some ungodly reason, undecided. So, Mrs. Kraus (are you still alive?), I CAAAARE. Happy now?

*NYT mag's Without a Doubt: "What makes Bush's presidency so radical — even to some Republicans — is his preternatural, faith-infused certainty in uncertain times." Do take special note of the part about the Swedish army. Yeeeikes.

*John Perry Barlow's October 3rd Post, Supporting Kerry Anyway [via Gregtheboyfriend]: "Gradually, I have watched the steam go out of the Anybody-But-Bush crowd as we realized that anybody, in this instance, was the increasingly irksome John Kerry...Against this backdrop of Bush-driven national emergencies, I've been allowing John Kerry's accent to diminish my sense of commitment to his election, I can't do this any more. Neither can the rest of us who have any regard for the well-being of our descendents. Yeah, John Kerry makes a lousy candidate for Prom King. But that isn't what he's running for." Booyah. Great article, but the comments scare me.