Day132 Saturday 01/08/11

ran 2.6 miles
United States Representative Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona was shot in the head outside a grocery store in Tuscon today while holding a public event. The scene was filled with hundreds of bystanders attending an event called “Congress on Your Corner.” A man ran into the crowd of people and fired his gun, reportedly fifteen or more times. The man was tackled and subdued by people at the scene and was apprehended and is said to be in custody.

As I type these words, it is unconfirmed, but the news is saying there were fifteen or more shots and multiple fatalities. So tragic! This isn’t supposed to happen in America!

I set out this morning to look at some articles and post about some current events and this story is what I stumbled across. There is not much to say after coming across such a tragic event. Facts and numbers are still unconfirmed and the last thing I can say about this tragedy is that thoughts and prayers are with the Giffords family and others who’s loved ones may have been injured or killed.

1,745.5 miles to go.

Day131 Friday 01/07/11

ran 3.3 miles

• Kansas was the thirty-fourth state to join the union on January 29, 1861, two years before West Virginia and two years after Oregon.

• Population, as of 2010, is 2,818,747.

• Senators are Jerry Moran (R) and Pat Roberts (R).

• Representatives are Tim Huelskamp (R), Lynn Jenkins (R), Kevin Yoder (R), and Mike Pompeo (R).

• Kansas has six electoral votes. Historically, the state has voted Republican for the majority of its statehood. It has not voted for a Democrat since 1964, when Kansas voted for Lyndon Johnson. In 2008, John McCain won 57% of Kansas’ popular vote.

Moving away from Kansas’ interesting facts, Michael Moore uttered yet another absurd opinion today that was probably meant to escape through his anus but somehow crept up to his vocal cords.

“White America does not like having a black president.”

Moore said this during an interview with Bill Maher. Maher adamantly agreed by saying, “That is the truth…the statistics don’t lie…I'm not talking about polls. I'm talking about that the young people in '08 was the only – do you know this? – it's the only demographic – white demographic – that Obama won, 18- to 29-year-olds. Every other demographic, over 29, Obama lost the white vote. Every single one.”

Larry Elder, an incredible journalist who should be a household name, wrote a notable article pointing out how offensive, ignorant and utterly diarrheic Michael Moore’s mouth was. For one thing, Elders points out that no Democratic presidential candidate has won the “White vote” since 1964. He goes on to deliver his point by noting that Obama received more of the “White vote” than John Kerry did in 2004. Barack Obama surpassed Kerry’s “White vote” in every age demographic.

This is the article and it is overflowing with wisdom and indisputable facts.

I find it very hard to understand or to figuratively live a day in the life of people who passionately support Barack Obama’s ideas, those who are fans of Michael Moore, or those who have a desire to watch “Real Time with Bill Maher”. What is the end game?

It seems like some of the really important issues in America, such as the ugly face of racism, are only augmented when radical liberals open their mouths.

1,748.1 miles to go.

Day130 Thursday 01/06/11

ran 2.9 miles

• Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Approval rating shows that 24% of American voters strongly approve of Barack Obama’s performance as president while 40% strongly disapprove, giving Barack Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of –16, compared to –13 on this day last week.

• Overall, 46% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of Obama’s performance and 53% disapprove.

• Only 27% of voters believe that the country is generally heading in the right direction.

So what is going on with all of the odd events in the past week? Birds falling from the sky, fish floating belly-up, crabs washing ashore lifeless, and a neon green river? If you have any theories, by all means please comment. It is very eerie.

On a lighter note, I was extremely excited to see that Bill O’Reilly will be interviewing Barack Obama on February 6, preceding the Super Bowl. That ought to be very interesting and well worth viewing. You can bet your right to vote that that interview would not have been scheduled were it not for the voter turnout and results of the November 2 election. Obama is squirming and to accept an interview with his biggest critic is an extremely desperate measure for his dwindling and extremely desperate time.

1,751.4 miles to go.

Day129 Wednesday 01/05/11

ran 3.7 miles
The 112th Congress was sworn in today. This ceremony was a historic victory for not only millions of conservative minds but, also, a staggering number of Independents and Liberals who Barack Obama let down with his change and direction over the last two years. Leading up to the Mid-term Election the Tea Party established a name for itself as a prevailing threat to Obama and his administration. Newly sworn in Congressman like Tea Party-backed Marco Rubio and Rand Paul, among many others, have some serious expectations to meet from a vehement and eager nation of citizens who elected them.

The Lame Duck Zombie Congress is finally over and the House of Representatives has acquired a healthy majority of Republicans while the Democratic numbers shrunk in the Senate. What the American people achieved on November 2 is a sign of how unbelievably amazing this country truly is. We, the people, vocalized our passion for America and the way we want freedom and our lives to be defined and our president and our government were forced to adapt and change course. There is no other country on Earth whose people possess more power and whose government is forced to such an extent to obey the will of its people. You can thank our founding fathers and the hundreds of thousands of soldiers who have fought and died for this country for nearly 250 years since the beginning of our Revolutionary War for that.

Here are some quotes from today’s Conservative victory:

“The American people have humbled us…they have reminded us that everything here is on loan from them…they seek a government that is honest, accountable and responsible to their needs.”

John Boehner

“The big changes today are of course happening across the dome…and I’d like to welcome the many new Republican members of Congress who’ve come to Washington to change the way things are done around here.”

Mitch McConnell

“The message from November’s election is that the American people have had enough and they want Congress to focus on creating jobs and cutting spending, and I look forward to working with Speaker Boehner and my colleagues in the House to address these and other important issues facing our country ... Representing Western New Yorkers in Congress is a job I do not take lightly, and I look forward to continuing to serve the needs of Western New Yorkers in the 112th Congress.”

Chris Lee

The road to November 6, 2012 has officially begun.

1,754.3 miles to go.

Day128 Tuesday 01/04/11

ran 2.6 miles
Today was a bizarre day of news. Birds are falling out of the sky and fish or floating to the surface of bodies of water, en masse, in Arkansas and Louisiana, mysteriously dead, Harold Camping of Family Radio, broadcasting out of Oakland, is declaring the end of the world to be May 21, 2011, the Mayan Calendar ends on December 21, 2012, and Barack Obama is once again letting go of key members of his administration. Those he lets go of will more than likely simply go under the radar of Washington to head his reelection campaign and the new faces he brings in will no doubt appease the masses who have disagreed with the majority of the decisions he has made up to this point.

Of all these odd goings-on, which have occurred very recently, I hesitate to admit that the birds and the fish suddenly dying in immense flocks and schools intrigue me the most.

Someone somewhere, no doubt, is going to proclaim any given day the last one and Barack Obama’s posturing and strategy is extremely unexciting and completely predictable. Politics are politics and they always will be. But birds falling out of the sky and fish floating on the surface of bodies of water---that is a very odd occurrence I can hardly wait to have explained!

Don’t drink the Kool-Aid and do not, for one second, think that Barack Obama regrets one single decision he has made regardless of how he politically postures himself otherwise over the next two years. Don’t mean to tell you how to think…just saying. America is two roads diverging and 2012 is where the fork in the road lies.

And definitely don’t drink the Kool-Aid.

1,758.0 miles to go.

Day127 Monday 01/03/11

ran 6.2 miles
A Congressman from California, Darrell Issa, soon to commandeer the Oversight and Government Reform Committee in the House of Representatives, intends to investigate, with the new Congress that convenes this week, numerous cases of fraud and government waste among the Obama administration. Among other hot topics, Darrell Issa and fellow Republicans vow to repeal health care reform, at least to some degree, considering their House majority is up against a dwindling Democratic Senate majority and a president who will likely veto any such idea, even if the legislation did somehow mange to wrangle the consent of the Senate.

This is old news, March of 2010, but Virginia Congressman, Tom Perriello, was quoted as saying, “If you don’t tie our hands we will keep stealing.” Addressing a faction of Tea Party supporters, this was his full comment, “If there’s one thing I’ve learned up here (in Washington) and I didn’t really need to come up here to learn it, is the only way to get Congress to balance the budget is to give them no choice, and the only way to keep them out of the cookie jar is to give them no choice, which is why – whether it’s balanced budget acts or pay as you go legislation or any of that – is the only thing. If you don’t tie our hands, we will keep stealing” Aside from a lethal dose of political suicide, Perriello has demonstrated an honesty, or a level of stupidity, that is not fit for the current state of our disappointment in Washington. (He was not reelected on November 2, 2010, but his quote, whether it was a weak moment that he allowed the truth to be told or if he was actually trying to pander to Tea Party backers that he should be their Representative, it goes to show how much of a circus Washington has become and how thick the wall is, which exists between our lawmakers and the people.

On an entirely different note, moving away from Washington, something that received a lot of publicity today was a prediction that the world is going to end on May 21, 2011. So, preceding the Mayan calendar prediction of the world ending on December 21, 2012, now we have another Doomsday theory. There is actually a billboard on Interstate 10 in Vidor, Texas, among many other locations, warning of the impending doom. I don’t mean to step on any fanatical toes but, according to Harold Camping, 88-year-old founder of Oakland-based Family Radio, which reaches millions of viewers all over the world, May 21, 2011 will begin the end of the world. He asserts that 7,000 years from the date of the great Biblical flood and May 21, 2010 both fall on the seventeenth day of the second month of the Biblical calendar, of course 7,000 years apart. It should be noted that Harold Camping has previously predicted the end of the world to occur in September of 1994, as well. He and a congregation awaited rapture with bibles pointed up and opened toward heaven. But nothing happened. Concerning the Mayan calendar, in a nutshell, on December 21, 2012, the Milky Way, the sun, and Earth are going to align in an extremely rare position, which many speculate would possibly alter the magnetic and gravitational nature that has kept this planet spinning on an axis tilted at 23.5 degrees for a very, very long time. If this tilt were suddenly changed, it could set off a catastrophic succession of natural disasters the likes of which have never been documented in the history of human civilization.

That being said, people have been predicting the end of this world for thousands of years and yet we are still here. I am not judging, mocking or supporting any one particular religious or nonreligious faction of belief or disbelief, in case any reader may get that impression. My doubtful assessment of these predictions are as much my right to express as it is incumbent upon others to believe in them. All we can do is wait and see.

May 21, 2011 will certainly be an interesting day, as will December 21, 2012, when one and/or the other finally arrive.

Sorry to jump aboard such a tangent in midcourse, which has nothing to do with running against Barack Obama, but I felt this story was very interesting and I am curious to see how other people feel about the audacity some mortal, fallible men possess to proclaim that they have figured out God’s big plan and that we should be so lucky to have them as prophets so we can prepare for rapture.

Anyhow, just a few bits of random news filling the air waves and inking the papers recently.

1,760.6 miles to go.

Day126 Sunday 01/02/11

ran 2.6 miles
I hate to admit it but each year, as the holidays pass and a new year begins, a huge sigh of relief sweeps over every fiber of my being. I certainly enjoy the holidays, but on a level I cannot even fully understand I seem to hold a real appreciation for new beginnings as opposed to the outcomes of any given endings. A new year is free and full of potential, whereas the end of a year is spent, known, and no longer holds any allure or mystery. So, as soon as Thanksgiving begins and rolls into December’s Christmas theme, culminating with New Year’s Eve, I have little patience left to not just simply move on and start anew. Especially when so much is at stake in the governing of this great nation leading up to the presidential election of 2012.

2010 was a year in which Barack Obama implemented his agenda and enacted his ideas, leading to a mid-term election with an outcome that rejected his previous decisions and his ideas in general. Barack Obama went on to sign more critical legislation during the Lame Duck session of Zombie Congress than he had in the remainder of the two years he was in office. Cramming in as many of his legislative priorities as he could before the new Congress is sworn in, which will happen this week, his agenda has already began to yield to the voice of the people and their November votes. But it’s too little and too late. Had American voters not shown up in defying numbers on November 2, 2010, this country’s immediate future would have been pointed in a much more radically different direction during the Lame Duck session we just endured. That being said, the new Senators and Representatives who eagerly await swearing in have a tremendously lofty bar of expectation to reach and it will be a challenge to make a notable difference between now and 2012.

Today ends week eighteen of running against Barack Obama and I wish everyone a prosperous and healthy 2011. Thank you for reading this blog and hopefully we can all make a difference leading up to the outcome of the presidential election on November 6, 2012. I ran 20.4 miles this week. Total miles run in the past 126 days are 313.2. My daily average is 2.49 miles per day.

1,766.8 miles to go.

Day125 Saturday 01/01/11

ran 2.6 miles
Welcome to 2011. It’s a clean slate full of potential. Those who find mediocrity as an ultimate goal and seek sustenance from the teat of the government, file to the left. For those of you who believe in opportunity with no ceiling for the price of working hard, form a line on the right.

If being proud to be a pebble of the American landscape is elitism then label me a pebble-sized elitist. I think America is the greatest country this planet has ever lifted above the surface of its oceans. And the citizens, not the government, that color its varying elevations red, white and blue have always been the spine of everything that makes this nation great.

Politics have always been politics and, by that, I mean to say just because yellow and blue make green does not mean that blue and green make yellow. There is a huge void in translation that exists between Americans and their lawmakers. There is no instant solution to breaking down the walls of understanding, which separate our nation’s leaders from our nation’s people, but the first step to the solution of keeping America the country we grew up in and love starts with electing Someone Else in 2012.

1,769.4 miles to go.

Day124 Friday 12/31/10

ran 3.3 miles

• Iowa was the twenty-ninth state to join the union on December 28, 1846, two years before Wisconsin and one year after Texas.

• Population, as of 2009, is 3,007,856.

• Senators are Chuck Grassley (R) and Tom Harkin (D).

• Representatives are Leonard Boswell (D), Bruce Braley (D), Steve King (R), Tom Latham (R), and David Loebsack (D).

• Iowa has six electoral votes. It lost one of its votes in the 2010 Census Reapportionment, leaving six total electoral votes through the 2020 presidential election. Historically, the state has voted red from the Civil War through 1988, barring five Democratic exceptions. Currently, Iowa leans blue. Barack Obama beat John McCain by a popular vote of 54% to 44% in 2008.

The year 2010 hangs by a final thread shadowed by the opportunities, chances and risks of the impending year 2011. Mere hours are left to take inventory of the past year and to gain perspective on the details that defined the year. It will not be long before baby-kissing, mudslinging, and scandalous campaigning for the 2012 presidential election will fill the ears and eyes of Americans everywhere, sensationalizing political fodder through every available media source. It’s all highly entertaining to watch these politicians posturing and making promises they cannot keep, feeding their insurmountable egos with camera time and interviews, until someone like Barack Obama actually somehow gets elected. It’s like when your mom used to say it’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt. America is hurting. Our president and our Congress are standing over America poking and prodding her bruises and wounds with the genuine belief that this will comfort her pain.

Be careful tonight while celebrating New Year’s Eve and have a great night. And when you wake up in the morning, recovering from your hangover, buckle your political seatbelt because these next two years are going to be the most defining in American politics in a very long time. The new Congress will be sworn in, presidential campaigning will begin, and November 6, 2012, though far away, will be the last opportunity to make Barack Obama a one-term president.

1,772.0 miles to go.

Day123 Thursday 12/30/10

ran 2.6 miles
Today marks four months of running against Barack Obama. Here’s a look back on the first day.

Day1 Monday 08/30/10
I just made my first run in my hometown of Lafayette, Louisiana. As you read further you will begin to understand that this is the first of many important runs I will have coming my way until November 6, 2012. This day will be a Tuesday and more importantly it will be Election Day for the next president of the United States of America. It will either be Barack Obama or someone else. To get right to the point of what this blog is about I am determined to help someone else win by personally running against Barack Obama for the next two years. I am going to run every single day regardless of what state or city I am in or what street I am running on. Weather will not stop me and illness will not deter me in any way from accomplishing this goal that I have.

I am running against Barack Obama because I am not a politician. I am running against him because I have an average job and no money to campaign with. I am running against him because this is the only thing I can think of to do to try to strengthen the point that there are millions upon millions of other people in this country that feel the way I do and that our united voice is constantly ignored on extremely important issues that our government keeps locked away in a suggestion box our leaders and representatives refuse to open.

Running and blogging are the tools I am going to use for this campaign and my platform is to get Obama out. I will attend no caucuses and my pundits will be few. Mudslinging will be self-inflicted from the heels of my shoes. The only primary I will participate in will be running myself into exhaustion everyday for the next two years and blogging about it.

It is out of belief and admiration in this country and all of the brave history I have read about it since its conception that I feel drawn to do this. It is from two years of talking with family and friends, eavesdropping on others at coffee shops and malls, listening to their discontentment in American politics, and generally feeling that so many others simply must feel the way I do…that so many things just seem wrong. Yet, what can you do to really make a difference? It is a helpless and desolate feeling, especially at this point in time with so much at stake. That is why I am doing this. If only a handful of people ever trip over this blog then I will be happy. I am tired of saying the same things over and over, hearing other people complain about the same stuff over and over, and nothing being done. There is one simple fact that our government cares as little about as the masses of people in this country fail to consider. We have numbers. We have an astronomical amount of numbers compared to what any government can successfully deceive or manipulate. But, like ants in a kicked over anthill, we all seem to run outside and make a fuss only to scurry right back into our homes and forget. This trait is one of our weakest contemporary shortcomings. We have grown to accept that politics are politics and that things are what they are. That is not how this country was founded and it is certainly not why you are so happy to be a citizen of it. We are different here compared to the rest of the world and things are not what they are.

Each day from this day forward I am going to run whatever formidable amount of mileage I can endure, regardless of weather or illness, until I reach or break my goal of 2,080 miles. I chose that number because it is the distance from my home in Lafayette, Louisiana to Washington, DC and back. Just to give you an idea of my daily quota for running, it will be a rough average of 2.62 miles a day everyday for over two years. And everyday that I run I am going to post on this blog. My reward is good health and a creative outlet in exchange for the frustrating and senseless governing our government has shut its people up with over the past two years. And as time will tell, it is not only Obama, or either of the two parties as a whole, that consume the political arena of senselessness. The emergence of tea parties across the American landscape was a huge message not only to our current president but also to the American Government in general. And this was a long inevitable process over the last few decades in American history, seeing what the American peoples’ breaking point was. Barack Obama just happens to be the proverbial straw that could possibly break America’s back. His ideas and motives are so radically life-changing in America for me as I interpret his direction, that another term would give him the opportunity to do what he really wants to do, without the consequence of having to earn another term by being only mildly as extreme as he is now.

It is our constitutional right to weigh our government on a scale and to write that weight down. And it is our government’s obligation to eat more, trim some fat or to continue its diet based on that number.

I ran 1.3 miles today. It was hot, humid and awesome to get this blog started. The idea of doing this occurred to me in July of 2010. Just as I was about to start stomping the pavement some unexpected travel came up with my job. Then my wife, Lindsey, and I took a small vacation when I got back. After a brief postponement of getting this thing started, the idea was ready to be taken out of the back of my mind and polished up. I discussed it with my wife and she agreed that someone else would indeed be the better candidate and that I should do this. After all, in order for someone else to win he or she will have to contradict most of the ideals that Obama believes in, so for the short term that has to be the indisputable option, at least for now.

2,078.7 miles to go.
(Four months later, 1,775.3 miles to go.)

Day122 Wednesday 12/29/10

ran 2.6 miles
Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie has announced recently that he would like to release more information about President Barack Obama’s birth records to prove all the skeptics who believe he may have been born elsewhere wrong. At this point, I could care less where Barack Hussein Obama was born. He is obviously not in jeopardy of forfeiting his presidency due to the small matter of whether he was born in the United States are not.

The dye has been cast in his refusal to show his birth certificate to those who had asked to see it two years ago. He refused to make the simple gesture of presenting a simple piece of paper when asked to prove his birthplace. Who does that? Who feels they are so above common courtesy and protocol that they actually refuse to show their birth certificate when asked by lawyers, fellow politicians, and millions of Americans? Furthermore, why did he exhaust so much money in attorney’s fees to protect the information surrounding the documentation of his birth? It makes no sense. And what makes even less sense is Hawaii’s governor resurrecting this conspiracy theory right when people were just beginning to accept that America lost its standards, principles and rules, pertaining to the honor and respect of what is becoming less and less the most honorable seat in our nation.

The dialogue between Barack Obama’s people and this governor’s people must have been the boardroom meeting to end all boardroom meetings. I think I am right to assume Governor Abercrombie did not just take it upon himself to raise this phoenix from its ashes after two years of smoldering. I have to think that he discussed the possibility, the potential, and the ultimate outcome of putting this goal forward with Barack Obama. If nothing else, either Abercrombie is deliberately making more problems for his president or the gears that make the American machine move thought this was a good idea and they obviously need to be tightened up or replaced.

I find it very difficult to put into words how ridiculous it is that the governor of Hawaii, after two years of an extremely heated controversy concerning Barack Obama’s birth certificate, deems now to be the appropriate time to end the debate. Did it just occur to him after two years of Barack Obama’s presidency that proving his origin might be an important matter?

If I were to apply for a job, in this current turbulent economy, and I was fortunate enough to be hired, and my new boss asked me to take a drug test, would it be odd if I hired attorneys and paid them truckloads of money to conceal the results of my drug test from my employer after I peed in the cup? I do not take it personally when an employer looks at me and tells me I need to take a drug test because it is a standard. It is protocol. It is an uncompromised method to filter people out of workplaces, who may otherwise create nothing but problems. Requesting a president to show his birth certificate is no different. It is not personal when I get a random drug test and it is nothing personal when America asks the president we hired to simply show his birth certificate.

It's been two years. Governor Abercrombie can dig up a certified letter from “Honest” Abe Lincoln for all I care. Barack Obama made his statement and defined his character the instant he refused to show his birth certificate two years ago.

1,777.9 miles to go.

Day121 Tuesday 12/28/10

ran 3.5 miles
Someone Else. This is a man or woman most of us can relate to and he or she is running for president in 2012. Someone Else. He or she has no desire to achieve mediocrity as an ultimate goal or to compromise American principles for the mess we have collectively allowed our nation to become over a time too long to recognize until now. Someone Else will not capitalize on how weak and un-American this nation has become or attempt to make it something it is not amidst its vulnerability.

The problems we now face are the consequence of a slow, almost unnoticeable demise, decade by decade, of not addressing important issues when they initially present themselves. It is like staring at a clock; you never actually see the hour hand or the minute hand move no matter how long you stare at the arms they are attached to. Impatient and obligated by more important things to do, we all avert our eyes and get on with our lives, ignoring the recurring seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years.

Time is captured in untimely glimpses and unpredictable moments you don’t ask for. Sometimes they are blessings and other times they are slaps in the face that demand attention. Now is one of those latter times. There is a cold gust picking up velocity in America that is chapping the lips and chafing the faces of citizens across our nation’s landscape.
Someone Else…

1,780.5 miles to go.

Day120 Monday 12/27/10

ran 3.2 miles
It requires little effort to find skewed and unreliable news, statistics and polls in this ever-shrinking world we live in. Stories, stats and polls fill every seam and crevice they can creep into, contradicting one another with numerously blatant reasons to believe that one side or the other is obviously lying. It is all the more reason to take a firm hold of what you hold dear about America and to make yourself heard. America is changing seasons and this new season is a fifth one, the likes of which this country has never seen.

I came across an article today, much like any other given day, in which…well, the article speaks for itself: “Barack Obama 2010 Most Admired Man”. This is the article.

In the first paragraph they proclaim, “Obama is the person Americans most admired in 2010, ahead of business, religious and other political leaders, a poll indicates.”

“A poll indicates?” What poll? Did the people who conducted this poll or answered the questions consider the shellacking our president received and the intolerance of Barack Obama's ideas as perceived by a very direct message in the election of November 2, 2010?

If you read further, the article suggests that Richard Slotkin, professor emeritus of American studies at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, conducted the study or poll or somehow produced the numbers. It is not explained how the list was arranged, aside from a general assumption that it is one University's representation of international power across the entire spectrum of politicians, athletes, religious leaders and CEOs.

What I find most curious about Wesleyan University in Connecticut is the fact that Forbes, an extremely reliable source, rated Barack Obama as number two, under Chinese president Hu Jintao, on their list of “Most important people in the world”. Wesleyan University does not even mention Hu Jintao in their top ten.

While Forbes may have taken a more direct approach to the reality of what men or women are really in charge, Wesleyan University may have taken a poll but the only thing it reflected is how out of touch the people they polled are, or how biased the people who comprised this list were on a very particular agenda.

The point is, we all know what we want America to be, and in November of 2012 this country will be on the precipice of two possible national and monumental changes. One will be Barack Obama’s change and the other will be someone else’s. I vote for Someone Else; he or she is a great candidate because if they are running against Barack Obama then their platform will have to completely contradict his ideas and decisions. Someone Else in 2012!

1,784.0 miles to go.

Day119 Sunday 12/26/10

ran 3.5 miles
Week seventeen of running against Obama comes to a close today. I ran 18.7 miles this week equaling a grand total of 292.8 miles. My daily average is 2.46 miles per day. I still have some catching up to do. The daily average I need to sustain to achieve my goal of running 2080 miles by November 6, 2012 is 2.62 miles per day.

I hope everyone had a merry Christmas and enjoyed their holiday time with friends and family. As wonderful as Christmas is it always seems to end with a quiet, internal sigh of relief. Children want to abandon their aunts and uncles for the excitement of the new toys they unwrapped, teenagers want to rush to the mall and various stores they received gift cards from, adults embrace the happiness of their sons, daughters, nieces and nephews, and reflect back to when they were that age, and grandparents sit back and watch it all, appreciating that everyone sitting around the tree and every moment that is happening began with them; it is the same feeling of pride and honor their grandparents had when they were only small children.

I hate to dabble into politics on the day after Christmas, when we are all trying to relax, fit in some leftovers, and not face adding up credit card bills or balancing the checkbook, but I just wanted to point out one small thing. Christmas, from the standpoint of an American tradition, is an absolutely beautiful and wonderful annual event from so many different points of view. Christmas is as American as apple pie, as are hundreds of other national traditions. The parallel I’m trying lay side by side is that, by some definition, conservatism is a desire to maintain tradition and liberalism is a desire to change tradition. I am not suggesting that American politics are ultimately a struggle to preserve Christmas as it stands in America, but this contrast is a simple, important fact that can be applied to our nation in various formats.

I challenge anyone who reads this post to really examine what it is you are after concerning your interpretation of America. What do you like or dislike about the state of our nation? And perhaps as a New Year’s resolution find some way to fight for something in this country that you feel is threatened or to strive to change something about this country that you feel is wrong.

1,787.2 miles to go.