My Other Life

I have a comment life outside of this blog, and sometimes I wonder if it rises to the level of "blogging by proxy."  The reason is that I generally wish to keep things here in a lighter vein, unless the anger really rises within me and I vent too strongly without taking time to check the impulse.

Here's an example of a recent comment that I made on another blog:

"Sabrina makes good points, as usual. "The powers that carry over . . ." indeed. My point would be that these powers now exist outside of the body of the president, they have an independent life of their own.

So maybe the questions this year, or any year, when judging candidates, is who might do the most to cooperate with this super-executive, and who might take steps to mitigate the problem?

And the idea that there is no difference between the parties does not, I think, hold water. They, and the politicians that they put forward, do still tend to push the polity in different directions. There is still a choice. Not, perhaps, the choice that we would hope for, but the choice that we have.

So Steven: I do not believe that these are powers that President Obama has taken for himself; rather they are powers that existed before him and to which he is bound. Yes, I hold against him the drone strikes, and much else, and the collateral damage, but I believe any new president these days has the riot act read to him immediately, and is shown a line to toe. We wouldn't want to experience any unanticipated helicopter crashes, now would we?"


So yes, I think there is a choice between President Obama and Mr. Romney.  An important choice.  It may be akin to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, we might be sunk already, but we need to stay to our due diligence and do the little bit that we can to avoid the future that many of us are afraid is coming.  

And yes, to be clear, I'll be voting for the president.