Failure of the Day: Weather, politics, nicotine, I mean, not nicotine

Well, alright, yes, it’s Halloween but the only way I know that for sure is that after a week of temperatures that tantalized 9 year olds into thinking that they will be able to go out trick or treating without a coat over their costumes, today it is cold and raining, as it always is, and everybody has to wear a jacket, damnit.

What I’m really doing today though is very, very belatedly getting up to snuff on the mayoral election next week. I’m usually rabid about it (lord knows I was in ’99, and I lived in Seattle during that election), but this year, there’s a strange hybrid between total apathy and a gawdawful pileup of candidates, most if not all (if that’s even possible) the candidates are more or less lefty spoilers. And the trouble is, you can’t tell the spoilers from the spoilee. Except for Alioto, who has spent her entire political career as a spoiler (remember Agnos and Jordan? I do).

Of Ammiano and Gonzalez, it seems clear that the latter is the spoiler, but only if you accept the premise that Tom can’t beat Newsom in the runoff. Which actually might be true, to my great sadness. My problem with Gonzalez is both his tendency to attack Ammiano instead of Newsom and his party affiliation—Green. As a general rule, I’d sooner flay myself with a rusty tuna can lid than support that party that is all to happy to embrace a philosophy of “things have to get worse before they can get better,” especially since it doesn’t get worse for them but only for other people.

But I tell you what: if the guy I like best can’t win, I’d just as soon not vote for him if a vote for him helps usher in the guy I absolutely don’t want. Call me crazy, but I think my second choice is preferable to my last choice. And I’d be a hypocrite if I didn’t stick by that in this election. Trouble is, that might mean (and I’m not certain yet but it’s looking like it) that I will wind up voting for Gonzalez.

Again: I sometimes wish irony weren't so damn ironic.