Leonard Gray / L’Observateur / September 3, 2000

There’s a lot of talk about the upcoming election for President of the United States. This has already turned into one of the wildest campaignsin memory, with rogue candidates, snarling advertisements, mediocre front-runners and an indifferent electorate.

That last is a shame. One of the greatest free elections in the world, andmany Americans will refuse to participate – either by not voting or by not even bothering to register to vote.

As a point of information, the deadline to register to vote is Oct. 9, theabsentee voting dates are Oct. 26-31 and the election day itself is Nov. 7.And while baseball may be the national pastime and football the national sport (don’t get me started), politics must be the national obsession.

Everyone has an opinion on this election (whether they vote or not) and, for certain, nobody will be completely satisfied with the outcome.

The Reform Party catastrophe was serious business to those involved, and a huge source of entertainment to others who couldn’t care less about the party founded by Ross Perot. Patrick Buchanan’s end run around Perot’ssquads made for late-night talk show jokes and alarming footage on the evening news.

Ralph Nader’s Green Party is perceived as a serious threat to the Democratic candidacy, by those who even remember his forays into environmental and consumer safety causes. Anybody even remember hislandmark book, “Unsafe at Any Speed”? Then we get to Tweedledum and Tweedledumber. Oh, excuse me. Our front-runners, otherwise known as George W. Bush and Al Gore. I could bemistaken, and I have been politically mistaken on many things in the past, but I don’t foresee any national monuments raised to either of these.

At a time when America looks for inspirational leadership qualities, this is our choice. It’s a curious historical note but many of our most inspiringpresidents took office in zero-number years – Lincoln, FDR, Kennedy, Reagan.

What happened? This year, even the vice-presidential candidates, Joseph Lieberman and Dick Cheney, are threatening to steal the attention away from their respective running mates. Concerns and questions about Cheney’s healthand Lieberman’s Jewishness have political soothsayers scurrying for their astrologers, trying vainly to get a handle on things.

In these last few weeks, look for the prospective First Ladies to step to the fore (I can’t believe Tipper’s been this quiet this long) and into the spotlight.

Political advertising has already turned vicious, as campaign chairmen know that while the voters say they hate such ads, they watch them and those ads have their desired effects. It’s sort of like watching trainwrecks.

We know a disaster is imminent, but we can’t stop watching.

LEONARD GRAY is a reporter for L’Observateur.

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