Wherein I wax political, which I never do...

I swore off politics a long time ago. While politics were a passion of mine in my teens, I began to despise them in my early twenties. Then I moved to Portland, the city of rabid, foaming-at-the-mouth liberal activism, and I hated politics even more. It was all so fake. So cheap. And good people never won. I still voted, but that was it, and it was only on principle... after all, as one of the five conservative republicans living on the west coast, I felt that I needed to represent, for statistics' sake.

Needless to say, I haven't been following this campaign at all. I voted in the primary, again on principle, but I've been turning off my TV and closing my browser windows any time I see so much as a hint of a political ad coming my way. So I had never heard of Joe Biden or Sarah Palin until about a week ago. That didn't bother me, though. I didn't really care. My voting decision was made; I didn't need to know anything else about the candidates.

Then, entirely by accident, on Wednesday night I happened to sit down at a bar in downtown L.A. just as Sarah Palin began her acceptance speech. This was entirely unlikely for several reasons, the first being the one I have just described: I'm not into politics anymore. The other reasons were 1) I was in L.A. . . . where none of the aforementioned five conservative republicans live . . . and 2) I was in a hotel bar, having dinner by myself, at 7:00 p.m. Weird.

Anyway, I listened grudingly, mostly because I was alone and had no one to talk to and I didn't want to appear "available," for heaven's sake.

And do you know what happened? I became interested.

Weird.

I mean, she's really a fascinating character. And tagging her for V.P. is the last thing I'd ever expect from the horribly predictable and boring GOP. I hate to say it, but I kind of like the woman.

Fast forward to this morning. I went running with a couple of friends early, before work, as I always do on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays. One of them is a staunch republican (number three of the aforementioned five). The other one would marry Hillary Clinton if it was legal. Oh wait, it is legal. At least, here in California it would be. Where only five conservative republicans live.

Anyway. As we huffed and puffed our way around our neighborhood we talked about Sarah Palin. And all three of us are voting for her. (John McCain didn't come up.)

Yes, that's right. The Hillary Clinton fan is voting for Palin too. For her, it came down to whether someone deserves to be in office more because of their race or their gender, and gender won. (Because when you're a democrat, merit and experience have very little to do with your ability to run a country. But I digress.)

The point of all of this is to say that Sarah Palin has singlehandedly gotten me interested in this campaign. Not excited, mind you. Just interested. I think I may now care enough to read an occasional news article.

Who knew?