Selling hope

Yesterday I was asked an interesting question, "John, what comes to mind when you think of Republicans?" I thought this was a good, but challenging question. Maybe I will start by answering what I think of Democrats. I think the Democrat party has their hearts in the right place but are so unorganized, and weak, that I would not feel comfortable calling myself a Democrat. For what brief time I was inspired by Obama's rhetoric, I have since become so irritated by Congress' inability to accomplish anything, I hesitate to line myself up with any one party. Now, onto Republicans. On some issues I might be conservative or moderate on (affirmative action, immigration, et cetera), I would never call myself a Republican. Basically, I am libertarian on almost every issue. I do not think of Republicans as evil, or stupid. At times I feel the GOP is heartless; and at worst, I feel they are ignorantly crazy. A prime example is when I was on the liberal learning website, dailykos.com. They polled self-identified Republicans and asked the simple question - Do you feel Obama is a Socialist. 79% of Republicans either believe he is a Socialist or are not sure if he is. This is just ignorantly crazy. There is a difference between a liberal economic policy and a Socialist economic policy.

1. I had been meaning to check out the movie 500 Days of Summer for a while now. Yesterday, when I saw my friend, Andrew, said it was his favorite movie of 2009, I decided it would be worth the $5.00 at Blockbuster to go rent the movie. I was right. I give the movie an A. It was sweet, witty, flowed beautifully, and was just a very fun movie. I still think the movie "Up" was my favorite movie of 2009, but 500 Days of Summer is certainly in my top five.

2. Today is National Signing Day. The period in college football where athletes sign on the dotted line for what school they will be spending the next four years at. Some fans think following recruiting is a joke. I respectfully disagree. Sports are all about selling hope. Following recruiting is following the hope that the next wave of recruits are going to be the class that takes your team to the promised land.