Burnout

The undeniable sign that I had reached campaign '04 burnout came last Friday night. In a dream, I was walking through a glorious, sylvan forest. The sun was shining, birds singing, deer foraging in the underbrush...when suddenly, I was surrounded on all sides by wolves, a la the Bush-Cheney ad "Wolves". Ever closer they circled, more and more of them, baring their fangs and closing in until...until...

I don't know if you've seen this commercial, but it combines footage of wolves in a forest with the following ominous voice-over:

"In an increasingly dangerous world…
Even after the first terrorist attack on America…
John Kerry and the liberals in Congress voted to slash America’s intelligence operations.
By 6 billion dollars…
Cuts so deep they would have weakened America’s defenses.
And weakness attracts those who are waiting to do America harm."

Subtle, no? This was just the most obvious sign of campaign burnout, but I had to take a week off of reading the papers, studying the polls, worrying about the effects of a Redskins victory on voter turnout in Milwaukee. But after a relaxing weekend spent eating Snicker bars and watching football, I'm back, baby.