Difficult to write about, this emotional state that has me in its dreary cloak.  An extremely hard to describe feeling that settles so deceptively over an unsuspecting psyche, causing things to look as from the wrong end of a bottle.  What is this strange feeling that kidnaps a sunny perception, and then disappears without reproach? What does one call it?  I refuse to call it depression; significant clinical signs are absent.  Anyway, if you should ever find the answer, please send it to me, would you? I’d appreciate it.  Meanwhile I’m left to fend for myself, and wait for it to go away, always knowing it’ll be back, once again, just as un-welcomed as now.  If possible I’d beat it to a pulp, stomp it into the ground, pour gasoline on it, and light it with a blowtorch.  Ah yes, if possible. In the old days of my youth, it, the feeling - had little chance to screw with me – because I was always on the move, or on the sauce/whatever (name your poison), yes?  No matter, for whatever the reason(s), I managed to evade it, that is – until – things started to change as I grew older, and more inclined/forced to go through life without a crutch, i.e. the sauce, the smoke, etc., etc., yes? Obviously, you might say to me – ‘this way of feeling’ could be the singular result of growing older, and all this discussion could be ‘elementary my dear Watson,’ but, I tend to doubt that it is merely the result of getting older, and please… don’t call me Watson.

Walking at a clip of approximately 3 mph, or said another way, a lap around the - quarter mile-walking track - every 4 minutes, he was keeping pace with an internal clock that was in a rhythm of it’s own, a tick-docking somewhere deep inside.  All the while - his other consciousness annoyed at the constant tick docking - was watching, always watching, even as the red truck pulled into the parking lot and parked.  Continuing to watch, the walking man saw a door open, and a man step out of the truck, onto the pavement. The truck had a ‘U.S. Marine’ license plate on the front bumper, and the idle thought was, “was he really a Marine - or did he just run the tag?” not that it mattered in the least.  The Marine, be him a real man or not, had a small girl with him, blond hair done up and riding on top of her head, not more than 8 or 9 years old, was the suspicion.  Stuck in the foolish man’s ear - an earpiece that without doubt was attached to some modern, musical miracle.  How deliciously stupid was that? Thought the watching man, and then wondering aloud said; “how stupid might this Marine be?”

We, the pupster and me, watched a Ron Howard documentary over the weekend.  “The Shadow of the Moon” is about the 24 men who went to the Moon.  Interesting show, but more interesting is that it brought up the controversy about whether or not we (U.S.) ever, really did go (to the Moon).  Now, I’m not crazy about conspiracies, but, when I really think about this country, ‘anything’ is possible, including a gigantic feint by our gov’t to fool us into thinking we really did go to the Moon, when in actuality – we didn’t.  I pulled the topic up on the WWW, and read about some possible reasons that the gov’t might do something like this.  Interesting reasons – but I was wondering if any of you all had any ideas?

While I was doing much of nothing today my mind wandered into a subject that I’ve thought about for quite some time now.  Seems to me that I have this uncanny knack for picking Presidential winners, at least since 1960 which was the first time Presidential politics caught my attention.  I was all of 12 years old but knew without a doubt that JFK was going to win the election. Why?  Cause I was for Nixon.  Why was I for Nixon?  I don’t really know, but it doesn’t matter in this accounting.  The important point is that I knew JFK was going to win – simply because I was for Nixon.  In 1964 I knew LBJ would win the election against Goldwater, but, so did the rest of the country.  LBJ won 49 states I believe.  Anyway, it was a landslide for the man who succeeded JFK.  In ‘68’ I knew Nixon would beat Humphrey.  How did I know?  I don’t really know how, just that Nixon would win.  I never doubted it, and in fact as we all know – Nixon did win.  In ‘72’ I knew Nixon would win re-election over McGovern, but again, so did most everyone in the country, for this was another landslide, this time for the Republican.  Too bad, he, Nixon, thought he needed extra help to win the election, which was the reason for Watergate.  The sad part to this story is that Nixon would of easily won the election without Watergate. 

In 1976 the country was sick of Nixon, Watergate, and the Republicans in general, hence I knew that Jimmy Carter would be our next Prez, and he was, much to our collective distress.  In 1980 I knew that the ‘California Kid’ (aka Ronald Reagan) from California (of course) would be our next Prez, and that the White House better stock up on jellybeans.  In ‘84’ I also knew that Reagan would easily win re-election, as did most of the country.   In 1988 – who didn’t know that Bush the Elder would beat that Gov from Mass., what was his name?  Hmm… I’ve forgotten, but anyway, it wasn’t even close.  In 1992, I knew without a doubt that William Jefferson Clinton, (aka Bill the Ladies Man) would win the election, after all Bush the Elder didn’t have a clue about the economy, and had pissed off the Conservative wing of his party by ‘backing up’ on his “read my lips” - No New Taxes pledge. 

1996 –Clinton vs. Dole, what a joke this election was.  Robert Dole never had a chance against ‘Slick Willie’ and his political machine.  Chalk up another one for Ice.

2000 was a little harder for me for I knew that Bush the junior would win because I wanted Gore to win. 

2004 - this is a 'late additioin,' because I forgot it in the original posting, but thanks to Mr. Whit I was reminded of the fact that I did not include 2004.  I also predicted this election correctly too.  I felt as if Bush would defeat Kerry and in fact as we all know, he did.  This was a particulary hard election for me - because John Kerry was a Vietnam Veteran and I "wanted" to like him.  I "wanted" to vote for him, and I "wanted" to want him to win the election.  I just couldn't do it because I felt like he'd been "planning" a John F. Kennedy style Presidential run since he first went to Vietnam with his "camera crew."  It was just too "planned" and "laid out" for me. 

So – there we have it.  I’m a frigging expert at predicting who will win the Presidential Election this year.

My prediction at this moment – Obama

Note:  this can and probably will change from time to time until right before November 4, 2008.  STAY TUNED