Published: May 16, 2008 03:02 pm            

Voters fed up with the status quo must elect change

The primaries are over. Now the real races begin, with even more television commercials for the national and state races. It’s been an interesting primary season, both locally and nationally. Mercer County had 14 candidates running for magistrate and several running for family court positions. The board of education and the county commission were also interesting races, with two seats contested for the board of education and one seat open on the commission.

Working for a weekly paper, as opposed to a daily, comes in handy at times, especially during an election. The poor souls that work with a daily newspaper come in late on Election Night and have to stay until early Wednesday morning to get election returns. Since we come out on Friday, I can happily get to bed early and find out the next day who won what. I’m probably the only one here that actually goes to bed very early, though.

The political ads I’ve seen for the presidential race have been positive, so far. The candidates were merely telling the voters they were the ones who can best lead the country. Hillary might be finished nationally when it comes to getting the Democratic nomination, but she did put a royal whipping on Obama in this state. When the decision about who will be the Democratic nominee is made, the general election is not likely to be pretty. But the race for president rarely is.

By the time November rolls around, most people will just be glad to get the election over with. A good friend of mine said we should have the election for president next month and get it out of the way. It’s not a bad idea since this is the longest run-up to an election I can recall.

Once the November election rolls around gas prices could be around $5 for a gallon. I know they’ll be at $4 per gallon by Memorial Day. There’s not much politicians can do to help, but most pay lip service. They feel our pain, even though most of them are flying in jets or traveling by limousine. I wondered this weekend if the sharp increase in gas would deter some people from taking Memorial Day vacations. It’s only a couple weeks away.

Gas prices don’t seem to have stopped people from traveling, so they’ll probably go on vacation as they always have. I don’t go as far as I used to, but I tend to be stingy. Traffic is still crazy on Stafford Drive at almost any time during the day, and I still have trouble getting out of the parking lot at work sometimes because of traffic.

When it comes to the high price of gas, I don’t know what any politician could do. Making oil companies pay for windfall profits probably isn’t going to bring down the price of gas, but it’s a nice thought. If people conserved and didn’t buy as much gas, that might have an effect.

Of course if that happened and gas prices did come down, everyone would run out to buy some and go somewhere. That would lead to gas going up again.

Change has been the big word in this year’s election, from the national level to some of the local races in Mercer County. People want change because of the economy, the war in Iraq and because the voters are tired of the status quo. Yet, it seems like the same people always get elected.

It doesn’t mean the politicians who get re-elected aren’t doing their job, but almost every election there’s a cry of, “Throw the bums out of office.”

I always hope that people do their homework before they cast their vote. I also hope that it isn’t true and people don’t get their news from shows like “Saturday Night Live” or “The Daily Show,” as amusing as those can be.

The primaries are over and locally, things will now quiet down. The biggest race is now for the president of the U.S. It will be interesting, with the superstar senator from Illinois going up against the maverick war hero. Obama has a legitimate shot at winning the election. I just wish this race had been over Tuesday too.

Mark Blevins is a Princeton Times reporter. Contact him at mblevins@ptonline.net.

        

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