I wrote a different post here about the new year, but I didn't care for it. It suffices to say I'm not imposing any expectations on 2007, I'm just going to let it show me what it's got.
And now, here are some lyrics from the song "The New Year" by the currently-trendy Seattle combo Death Cab for Cutie:
So this is the new year
And I don't feel any different
The clanking of crystal
Explosions off in the distance
So this is the new year
And I have no resolutions
For self-assigned penance
For problems with easy solutions
So everybody put your best suit or dress on
Let's make believe that we are wealthy for just this once
Lighting firecrackers off on the front lawn
As thirty dialogues bleed into one
I wish the world was flat like the old days
Then I could travel just by folding a map
No more airplanes or speedtrains or freeways
There'd be no distance that can hold us back.
So this is the new year
As for the war in Iraq, we may see it wrap up this year. George Stephanopolous asked a panel on This Week a couple of weeks ago where they thought the war would be in 2008. Sam Donaldson wisely said, "We're not going to be in Iraq in 2008! Bush has already blown it for the Republicans in the midterms, they're sure not going to let him blow `08!"
This year we're going to hear almost more than we can stand about Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John McCain, Rudy Guliani and John Edwards. As a bumper sticker I recently saw said, I'm for "Bill for First Lady." However I have no delusions that anyone like my aunt would vote for Hillary Clinton, even if she wears a similar hairdo.
Barack Obama...Barack sounds like Borat. Obama is close to Osama, and his middle name is Hussein. I'm smelling a "no sale" to the Midwest and Southeast...perhaps the Northeast and West, also. Throw in Puerto Rico while you're at it.
John McCain: believe it or not a few years ago I supported McCain (not with a vote, just silent approval), but as I recall he was in the race, out of the race, back in the race; this impressed me as someone who's fortitude was spent back in the tiger cage.
John Edwards could be great, but maintaining a flat stomach and bouncy head of hair into his mid-50's has worked against him as every pundit says, "He's a young guy who's got lots of time." I also worry that his toothpaste ad-ready looks could also incite the terrorists to further jealousy and violence.
So this leaves Guliani, who I like except he was, for a time, roomates with a couple of gay guys and for a Republican...that's too odd.
Outside of a few election thoughts I have no predictions or aspirations for this year, except that I'll be back here typing up thoughts on 2008 in 12 months' time. May the intervening time be serene at the least, rewarding at most.
Death Cab for Cutie plays "The New Year"
John Edwards has ordinary Anglo names, a flat stomach and great hair. Voting for him is so much easier.