And they're off!

I'm Barry Caro, opinion columnist from the Class of 2009, and I'll be posting some thoughts and observations here throughout the day. The first of these is that I'm not going to be happy no matter who wins today. The Republican Party and I don't see eye-to-eye on most issues, and incompetence is endemic in our government. The Democrats, on the other hand, have run a campaign based on the fact that they are not Republicans. The unfortunate truth is that no one knows what a Democratic Congress would look like because the Democrats have offered little more than hollow slogans to describe their plan of action in the event of victory.

Then of course there is Iraq. As I wrote two weeks ago, I feel that the media is probably painting an overly negative portrait of the war by reporting only the facts that fit with their storyline. Because of that, I cannot support precipitous withdrawal. And no matter how furiously you massage the message, precipitous withdrawal is what the Democratic platform boils down to. The current situation is far from perfect, which is the Republican's fault, but I've yet to see a realistic argument on how withdrawal would improve sectarian strife. So despite the Republicans' many faults, I can't be sure which party is the lesser evil. I'm an optimistic guy though, so I'll probably decide it's whichever one wins. Predictions soon ...

--Barry Caro