DUBYA, RUDY, AND JED

3 November 2002

I don't want to make you guys feel bad, and I don't really like to be a name dropper, but this is pretty heady stuff.

I've never been what you'd call one of the "beautiful people." Never really traveled in important circles (unless you count Steve...), never really had much to do with politics at all, let alone influential politicians (well...we rub elbows with local politicos, but only because our kids probably went to nursery school with their kids). So this new thing really has me surprised.

It turns out I have become the darling of both the Republicans and the Democrats.

And, I'll have you know, none other than George Dubya Bush (yes, the pres), Rudy Giuliani and...even more exciting...President Jed Bartlett have all called me. Me. They've called me!

Now, I have to admit that I have not actually spoken with these men. They tend to call me when I'm at work, but they leave wonderful messages on my answering machine. Long messages on my answering machine. Brief speeches on my answering machine.

Is it election day yet? Please, dear God, let election day come soon...

This forced spam telephone call business is new this time around and it's very annoying. I didn't vote for George Bush; I don't want him calling my house, even as a recording. He and Rudy are both encouraging me to vote for Bill Simon for governor. Simon makes George himself seem brilliant. The man has run one of the dumbest campaigns this state has ever seen and no amount of "personal" contact from Dubya and Rudy are going to convince me to vote for him, no matter how little I care for his opponent, Grey Davis.

However, when I listened to messages yesterday and found out that the Democrats had come up with Martin Sheen, President Josiah Bartlet himself, to call and encourage me to vote for Davis, I just had to laugh. (Incidentally, if you want to call Martin Sheen, his telephone number is 866-849-3243, my caller ID tells me. Of course this just might be an annoying service which has been hired to flood telephones with recordings of President Bartlett.) I suppose in an era where our royalty can be found in Hollywood, it's not surprising that the Democrats would have chosen a popular television president to push its message. But it still makes me giggle.

I'm not sure but I think I remember that Arnold Schwartzenneger called me to to ask me to vote for a proposition.

Today I spent the day in Alameda getting URL serviced and Governor Grey Davis called. Twice!

 It's really terrible when more and more you can't retreat to your own home and find some sort of peace. It used to be that you could tell telemarketers to take you off their list and they had to respect that request. But how can you fight back against a recording that leave a long message on your answering machine?

I think I did answer the phone once when George called. I hung up on the president. (I might have listened to President Bartlett, out of curiousity, so I guess I'm the appropriate target audience after all. He is my personal choice for President--and I suspect I'm not alone.)

Thank God it's all over on Tuesday.