Last Debate Shot

We were standing around Stetson's, drinking and heckling and having such a big time, making jokes and shouting at the screen...

But making jokes about the president doesn't feel that good. For one thing, it's just too easy to make cheap shots. Everybody thinks they're a political analyst, but they're not. We all just want to do the right thing, every last one of us. I do, Kerry does, even Dick Cheney does, somewhere in his wrinkled defective heart.

We just disagree so much on what the right thing is. It's terrifying to think that some people who are not much smarter than I am have so much power that they can do pretty much whatever they want. They're up there at the plate, we all are, swinging at the same ball, but nobody know where the ball is going to go.

Democrats and Republicans are determined to disagree on everything, but the one thing we can all agree on is this: the fate of the entire world hangs on this election, and there's a really good chance the wrong guy is going to get into office.

All those laughs, all those drunken jokes and bullshit just illuminated to me in that moment captured in the photo that we're all just scared. It's important to vote, but you might as well buy a Powerball ticket on your way to the polls because the odds of hitting the jackpot and influencing the outcome are so small...

After watching the debates, I wove home, scribbling this note on the paper by my bed before passing out:

Kerry killed Bush tonight, and now there's only a fifty percent chance Bush will lose as opposed to the fifty-five percent chance yesterday.

I'm going to Stetson's for the VP debates tonight. I'll play Wonkette's drinking game and I'll laugh and take pictures, but it won't be funny.

posted by Jeff Simmermon @ 5:50 PM