Politics on the Street Corner

Coming home from church last night, a group of people - most looked like teenagers, one or two might have been a little older - were talking about Obama and the upcoming Inauguration, which of course led to talking about Bush and the out-going administration. I'm no huge fan of George Bush - nor of Obama, nor, for that matter, of any politician I can think of - but you simply cannot blame everything that's ever gone wrong on him. I'm not nearly outspoken enough, though, to get into political arguments with strangers on the street by protesting when they say things like,

"Ain't never had no terror attacks before George Bush. Al-Qaeda started planning September 11 as soon as they heard George Bush was president."

I generally have no interest in politics, and don't have any plans to blog about it much if at all. There's startling ignorance displayed, though, by people who can hate someone without having all the facts - like that the plans for 9/11 were initiated well before Bush took office, or that there were plenty of terrorist attacks during Clinton's terms.

On a related note, I generally despise the term "drank the Kool-Aid" as used in reference to fans of Obama - I think it's insulting, and I have a lot of good friends who are fans of his - but I couldn't help but note that it unfortunately seemed very apt yesterday when I walked past the Metro. There must have been a dozen people selling T-shirts on the street corner - with everything from his face to the White House in grey, labeled "The Black House" - and a guy selling commemorative newspapers, not to mention all the tourists. I've gotten into arguments - online and in real life - for saying things like "he's only human," so I'm not going to comment any more, beyond saying I wish him all the best.