So the exciting new publicity campaign from our dear friends in the White House has been unveiled. The strategy is simple: Blame Democrats and other war opponents for the shortcomings, and put a footnote in history that surely this administration will be unfairly blamed for their own failures. The public's response? Move the Bush presidency ever closer to (wounded) lame duck territory. Gallup/USA Today has him somewhere around a 35 percent approval rate. I guess the question across America is "How low can he go?"
The critics will not write history, and no one can take joy in the disaster our nation has become.
Along the same vein, Samantha and I attended the Tennessee Federation of College Democrats Fall Summit this weekend. My reason for even bothering to go wasn't so much for the summit, as I'd been to one before. We had tickets to a hockey game that night (nice tickets ... proud of my idiotic-but-fun purchase), and needed something to fill our afternoon with. Besides, it was good to witness first-hand the torch being passed to a younger generation. Scarry thought.
Now, taking a non-hockey fan to a hockey game is a challenge. You can't sell them on the intricacies of the game. Instead, you just have to rely on the electricity that fills the arena. Over 17,500 of "my closest friends" certainly created enough of it. Hartnell put two in the back of the net to open the second period, and the rest of the game was spent keeping the Blues contained to their lone goal in the first period. Add Timonen locking it up and the third, and you've got another great game on Broadway.
My thoughts lately have wandered to where we might wander after college. I think I'm spitting out about three semi-serious ideas a day. I'm mostly trying to get the specifics of the summer nailed down. Having to take that one Spanish class puts a monkey wrench into the works a bit. Jackson, Tenn. is one possibility on the table right now. It would allow for Samantha to finish her MBA while holding down a full-time job. Job prospects in Jackson are brighter than Martin. The other is Nashville, with a significant delay on her finishing the program. Either way, I have to be near Martin at least until the end of July, barring an appeal to allow me to break my "final 30 hours" clause in my degree. UTM likes for those to come from UTM.
I've registered for my final full-time semester at UTM, thanks to the 120-hour degree mandate that altered the requirements for every major. After recalculating my schedule earlier this semester, it was determined that Fall 2006 became Summer 2006. This altered a lot of my future planning, but it made a lot of it a lot easier.
So yeah, the future. I guess that's where the mind should stay for soon-to-be college graduate. I keep telling myself that, although I'm not totally convinced. I have a strong feeling, much like many that I've spoken with that came before me, that my higher learning is a bit lacking. How am I more qualified to go out into the world than I was five years ago? I'm migrating through the phases of sadness, anger and acceptance that my degree isn't the bright and shining trophy I thought it would be.
Like they say, all is well that ends $15,000 in debt. Right?