Losing and Winning

Losing and Winning



Election Day this year resulted in a major surprise: it seems that all my votes went to winners.  There's a local (county
not village or town) race or two about which I remain unsure, but for
the most part, I cast my vote with the majority this time.  Wow,
that's unusual.



Voting for Hillary for Senator [1] or for Spitzer for Governor [2] was a no-brainer.  Their opponents [3] waged almost no campaign effort, and had less name recognition than Mr. Whipple [4].  And Mr.Whipple's been retired for some time now.  I cast a clothespin vote [5] for son of Mario [6],
but the stench was still evident.  Why do this?  Here's why:
the woman running versus son of Mario made Ginny Ferarro seem like an
altar boy, to mix and mangle my metaphor.



But this is not about gloating.  Nor is it to celebrate the
changes in office here in NY and elsewhere.  The topic at hand is
losing and winning.  And knowing where politicians are coming
from, where they stand, how they might vote, how they might represent
their constituencies.



In an earlier post I made mention of the seeming apathy in Connecticut,
at least due to a lack of political signs, bumper stickers, and general
public view of the citizenry taking issue.  I'd driven through CT
a few times in the course of the campaign, and had seen almost no
political messages at all.  Teeny little Rhode Island, next door,
was teeming with political messages, but CT seemed asleep at the wheel
of the party wagon(s).  One drives through RI in a mater of a just
few heartbeats, but --thumpety-thump, thumpety-thump-- impressions re:
Whitehouse and Chaffee (and a bunch o flocal races) were in abundance
in Rhode Island.. Granted, this observation is coming from a New Yorker
just passing through.  Stopping, it at all, just for gas or to
visit a rest stop.  But all my trips back and forth took me
through major cities as well as rural areas.