Hay Hollywood, Go Home

I have been trying to get together something to say about last night's debate all day but I have yet to think up anything smart. It was dispiriting to see that Cheney's authoritative, mean-spirited, alpha male routine won him the immediate praise of every TV pundit I saw. I was somewhat heartened to read that Sullivan gave it easily to Edwards, and that when corrected for bias, even the ABC poll had it basically tied. However, there are times like these when I doubt the whole principle of democracy. It seems inevitable that Bush will win on Friday, since all he has to do to win is be more of a guy you'd wanna have a beer with. The only real reason he lost on Thursday was that he was a pouting, impatient, peevish guy instead of our smirking, Hey Buddy in chief. I doubt our process; I felt this way in the primaries too, when it seemed that once Iowa had gone Kerry, so did everyone else. There was no listening to policy or comparing character; it seemed like, once there was a winner, he was the winner, and the momentum was unstoppable. Now I feel, watching the "debates" that Cheney "won" by being a mean, evasive, superior, careerist, and that Bush will "win" by not being as weird as Kerry. I guess democracy means embracing permanent anti-intellectualism as our fundamental mechanism. But maybe I am just feeling outnumbered and surrounded by dummies. A TV show is shooting on my street today in Brooklyn and my landlord has posted a sign on our building which reads, "Hay Hollywood, Go Home."