THE
Boyfriend incumbent
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can’t help but wonder what George W. Bush is doing these days, now that his term is drawing to an end. Perhaps scrambling to leave some semblance of a
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or planning how haze Barack Obama into office? Regardless of how he fills his time, he knows that he must
letterstotheeditor Polity for GeorgiaSouthern game The men’s basketball team plays Georgia Southern tonight at 9 p.m. in Cameron Indoor. The policy for tonight’s game is a modified walk-up line policy/The walkup line forms next to Wilson Gymnasium. People can create groups of up to six people with half of the group required to be there at aU times. To register the group, line monitors will be present in Krzyzewskiville. As Houston plays Presbyterian at 6 p.m. doors to Cameron will open at 5:45 p.m. and will remain open until the student section is full. Go Duke!
Joel Burrill Head line monitor Trinity ’O9
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megna raksit
even though the sex an( J b u]j city U.S. has mentally moved on to envisioning a future led by the President-elect. As awkward as this painfully slow transition may be, I would argue that it happens more often than every four years: Just ask anyone who is in a, casual relationship but looking forward to finding her Prince Charming. A lame duck president isn’t so different from a lame duck boyfriend—the guy that you’re having a great thne with, but you know isn’t The One. He’s sort of in office while you keep your eyes peeled for a man a bit more refined, intellectual and charming... in short, a bit more like Barack. Having a boyfriend incumbent isn’t in the least bit unusual. It’s just another way to look at a casual relationship that remains casual because one partner or the other isn’t ready to become “serious,” but the relationship is too bin to forgo. There are quite obviously pros and cons to lighthearted dating. On the one hand, you always have someone to take you out to dinner and a movie, and you have the comforting knowledge of where your next kiss (or orgasm; no judgments) is coming from. But what about the inevitable drama that comes with being in a relationship? Perhaps the myriad of lover’s spats Jill originates in the one discrepancy between the boyfriend incumbent and the ideal boyfriend-elect, and the end of the relationship (“It’s not me, it’s you.”) would bring an end to the weary, repetitive battles. Casual dating is something people just fall into, but staying with Mr. Right Now can be a source of more stress than the post-election Dow. If there is no immediately relevant reason to end the relationship, but it’s a far cry from your ideal romance, are you supposed to stay in it because you’re already there, or are you supposed to break it off for a fairer perspective of the other candidates? I suppose it all comes down to one question: If you are fully confident that the person you are currently dating will never be the one you marry, then what’s the point? Some element of magic seems to be missing from this equation, and you’re only left with the question of whether to break up sooner or later. Unlike our democratic system, there is no peaceful transfer ofpower from one boyfriend to the next. There is no politically correct way to hold primaries for the next commander-in-chief without hurting the current executive’s feelings and so one must eventually be single. But then again, why should we even concern ourselves with the outcome of our college relationships? We’re young, we have a world of future leaders to choose from and surely one of them will fill the True-Love shoes Disney laid out for us many years ago. Maybe we should just focus on the here and now: Let the boyfriend incumbent stay in the Oval Office, but keep an eye out for the White Knight boyfriend-elect.
Megna Raksit is a Trinity junior. Her column runs every other Tuesday.
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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 11,2008 | 15
commentaries
CHRONICLE
The Backpages
The Chronicle’s Opinion Blog
backpages. chronicleblogs. com
Sherouse lowers political discourse, reinforces stereotypes In his Nov. 5 column, “Right, on,” Oliver Sherouse seeks to give a conservative perspective on the election of Barack Obama and work out goals for Republicans over the next two years. This, in and of itself, is not a bad thing. As the one of the only conservative voices of The Chronicle (a shame, perhaps, but more likely a simple reflection of the student body), Sherouse has the opportunity to moderate what is most likely an overenthusiastic and optimistic response to the election, as
well as continue to make a case for his and his fellow conservatives’ principles and policies. I am rather confused, then, as to why Sherouse has chosen throughout his Chronicle tenure to eschew critical thought and rational argument in favor of empty talking points, personal attacks without relevance to issues and baseless, or even demonstrably false, accusations. To take the immensely complex fabric ofinterconnected and subtle effects that is public policy and state that “[the policies of the left] do not work very well” is an oversimplification so absurd as to merit its dismissal out of hand, not even requiring the host of historical facts that direcdy dispute it. To cast liberals as a group of “Nietzsche-and-Rawls-spouting hippie knock-off[s]” (ignoring the fact that a hippie would be about the last person on earth to spout Nietzsche) accomplishes absolutely nothing but rallying your enemies and strengthening that great enemy of democracy, political demonization. By lowering to such enraging and non-thinking levels, Sherouse diminishes himself to little more than a rabid attack dog and only reinforces stereotypes of Republicans as arrogant and irrational. Mark Whitfield Trinity ’O9
The Obama pool Friendly
wagers and office pools, which I do not condone, are an American institution. Whether it’s the Super Bowl or March Madness, these guessing contests, which are absolutely deplorable, have become übiquitous. Why should sports have all the ban, though? It would be a shame for all the excitement over the election and the new administration to end now, so let’s continue with a betting pool based on the future of our country —an affront to all cc a l that is pure and good and right JGII QltZlCr (are you happy now, NCAA). the big ditZ Just fill out your answers below, and (ifI remember) I’ll give the winner a lovely prize at our fifth (or, if President-elect Barack Obama gets a second term, 10th) class reunion. •
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1. President George W. Bush will go down in history as: (A) the father of President Jenna Bush (B) the greatest commissioner in Major League Baseball’s history (C) a hilarious recurring character on “The Colbert Report” (D) the developer ofhis signature line ofbarbecue sauces. 2. The new White House puppy will be named: (A) Spot (B) Rover (C) Fido (D) Hillary 3. The new White House puppy will be a: (A) beagle (B) golden retriever (C) bulldog (D) poodle (E) pit bull with lipstick 4. Vice President Joe Biden will: (A) bring Delaware to the height of its glory and power (B) end up getting whacked by Obama’s Chicago mob connections (come on, you know he has them) after his gaffes drive down the president’s approval rating a bit too much (C) at least not shoot anyone in the face 5. During the Obama administration, the stock market will (A) gain 10,000 points through the sheer power of“Change We Can Believe In” (B) lose 2,000 points after that guy who currently sits across from you in Econ gets drunk and spends all of Goldman Sachs’ money at White Castle (C) be largely replaced by trading baseball cards 6. Obama will be forced to declare war on: (A) Iran (B) North Korea (C) Iceland (D) Donald Trump
7. By the next election, the unemployment rate will be: (A) higher than it is now (B) lower than it is now (C) the same (D) nobody will be unemployed except you 8. The most embarrassing moment of the Obama years will __
be when; (A) Secretary ofState John Kerry defects to France (B) a violent coup brings a repressive dictator to power in Kenya —who happens to be Obama’s cousin (C) Delta Forces raid the Oval Office because a typo indicated that Osama was hiding there (D) the National Association of English Teachers corrects his slogan to “Change In Which We Can Believe” 9. Obama will finally solve the problem of: (A) health care (B) 39-Down on the New York Times crossword puzzle that’s been bugging him for the past week (C) illegal immigration (D) how to make the perfect gin-and-tonic 10. The Obama administration’s greatest crisis will be when: (A) the economy forces the government to bail out
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(B) the Cleveland Indians win the World Series, causing riots in the key swing state of Ohio (C) global warming causes a Category 5 hurricane in the key swing state ofFlorida (D) global warming causes A1 Gore to run in the 2012 primaries 11. Obama’s greatest success will be: (A) reducing global warming enough to allow ice skating in K-ville (B) winning half of Siberia from Vladimir Putin in a poker game (C) retiring the national debt by selling Gov. Sarah Palin swimsuit calendars (D) getting Oprah to shut up about him 12. Obama’s Republican opponent for re-election in 2012 will be: (A) Mitt Romney (B) Sarah Palin (C) Mike Huckabee (D) Peter Feaver (E) Joe the Plumber 13. Obama will go down in history as: (A) Bill Clinton with his pants on (B) the greatest black president in American history (C) the man who popularized fist-bumping
Hopefully, this pool can keep you interested in politics for the next four years. We can poke fun at the incoming administration (we certainly did our share with the last one), but on a more serious note, the engagement of young people in national and world affairs this year is a promising sign for the future. You could even call it “change we can believe in.”
JeffDUzler is a Trinity senior. His columns runs every other Tuesday.