The Pendragon's Hall

In case you've been in a coma for the last three weeks, 2004 is a presidential election year. The media seems suddenly determined to remind us of this at every turn. Whatever President Bush does from here till November is going to be analyzed and written up as "an election year effort". His immigration is "an election year proposal"; his space program is "an election year plan". If he came up with a plan to have Americans breathe regularly, it would be considered "an election year effort" to win the regular-breathers vote (always a core group). To be fair and balanced, something the papers are not, I disagree with President Bush's immigration suggestion, but this is because I think it is a bad idea not because he suggested it (the media's reason). And they are right--it is "an election year proposal" because 2004 is an election year! And yes, he is also trying to "court" the Hispanic vote. So what? Isn't this what politicians do? It's not earth-shattering news. Politicians want to be re-elected; so they reach out to the voters they believe can re-elect them. There's nothing patently immoral about the process--it's American as apple pie. All the presidential candidates are doing it--why else do you think extreme leftists in the Democratic primaries are talking about Jesus, while campaigning down south? But according to the exalted media this is simply "trying to connect" with the voters. Personally, I think we might safely see it as "an election year proposal" to make Christians look so bad (by equating them with the likes of Howard Dean) that no one takes Christian candidates seriously anymore. In light of President Bush's Christianity, the possibility is not remote.