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So first off, I think SNL is doing a great job covering the election. I think it's awesome that Tina Fey impersonates Sarah Palin because, well, in a line-up I can't tell them apart. The political satire thus far has been first rate. I'm absolutely engrossed in Indecision 2008 much like I was in Indecision 2004. Hopefully, there will be a different outcome at the end of it all. The Colbert Report has also been particularly witty and hilarious. In fact, it's sad when the weekend is here because I have to wait until Monday night for more Daily Show and Colbert Report. Keep the satire coming!

I'm currently reading a few books. They all deal with different topics. One of them is, The Political Mind, Why you can't understand 21st-century American politics with an 18th-century brain. It's really good so far. It's written by highly regarded linguist and cognitive scientist, George Lakoff. There is one excerpt that I'd like to share.

Narrative and War

In the first Gulf War, the first President Bush first tried a self-defense
narrative: Saddam Hussein was threatening the United States. He was choking
off our oil lifeline. Antiwar demonstrators countered with the slogan "No Blood
for Oil," and it worked. A poll taken three months before the war showed that
Americans would not go to war for oil. But they would go to war for a rescue.
Immediately after the poll, the president's narrative changed to the Rape of
Kuwait, a rescue narrative. The daughter of a Kuwaiti diplomat, who lived in the
United States, but was identified falsely as a victim of Saddam's army in
Kuwait, testified to seeing brutal rapes. The rape testimony shored up the
Rape of Kuwait narrative. Saddam was the Villain (inherently evil, beyond
reason), Kuwait was the victim (innocent, too weak to defend herself), the
United States was the hero (the rescuer), and the coalition members were the
helpers.

Tomorrow, I'll post an interesting parallel to this war narrative and discuss more about what this means to us as Americans and what it could mean this November.