When Ed and I got our Florida driver’s licenses, there was an option to register with a political party. I registered as a Democrat. Ed registered as a Republican because, classically, he considered himself a fiscal conservative.

Ed swore himself out of the Republican party when McCain accepted Sarah Palin as his running mate. But he never re-registered himself, nor did he become an Independent. So since he is on the books as a Republican, we get surveys put out by the RNC that he fills out with liberal choices, figuring that will drive them nuts. The questionnaires, in any case, are greatly slanted to insure a vote that they are pleased with. For instance, “Would you choose the Democratic plan to kill all babies under 2 years of age, or would you vote against choice? (Well, that’s an exaggeration, but close enough.)

Because Florida is a key state, and wonder of wonders, went for Obama in 2008, Republican-registered households are getting all kinds of automated calls.

A call came in this morning with an automated survey. Instead of hanging up, I listened to the survey question – they wanted to know who we planned to vote for and named the candidates. Ed had said he would like to vote and check the box for Santorum, just to confuse things. Ed was napping. I wouldn’t wake him for this so when they offered an option “do not plan to vote”, I chose that one. I just couldn’t bring myself to choose Santorum, even as a joke.

So we are doing our little bit to confuse the issue.

We listened to President Obama’s State of the Union speech last night and thought he hit it out of the park. The comments following included Republican spokes people who were, traditionally and classically dismissive and harped on omissions that had been thoroughly covered in the speech. Another tactic they have is to pretend that a question has not been answered.

During the speech, the camera panned over the auditorium and occasionally settled on Mitch McConnell,who sat, stone faced, looking as if he’d swallowed a mouse, and realizing that the president’s speech was going very well indeed and that more people were rising to their feet and clapping than he wanted.

So I took a few moments off to Google Mitch McConnell photos. I chose one, copied it to Word, printed it, cut it out, and put it on my pin board with an appropriate number of straight pins in strategic places. This may be having no effect, but I sure feel good doing it.

xx, Teal