In only a matter of days, the presidential election will be over and the entire peanut gallery of America will have to find better things to do with their collective time. I suggest getting a life. Bush will have won (I predict) and the career Bush-bashers living off a trustfund (aka trustafarians) and complaining about a lack of jobs will have to re-group and resume their typical, tired, whining, complaining, and blaming garbage. Yawn.

Many people have theorized that the media (and bloggers) will suffer a blow when the election's over, lacking anything substantial to talk about politics-wise. Personally, I can't wait until it's all over. Election politics get old and there are so many more productive and fruitful things to discuss.

Yesterday, I returned to Seattle to see that local election signs had sprung up everywhere. I saw names of people I'd never heard of before. Good golly I'd forgotten, we have local elections too! Every four years it happens. Truth and consequences drowns in the tide of political party hubris.

How many of us neglect the importance of our own state legislatures and local initiatives in the election process? The person we choose to represent us as president is very important. The people that have a say on the daily affairs of our communities are arguably equally important. I am bothered by the amount of time people spend complaining, whining, and giving the presidency more power than it truly has. Meanwhile, we completely neglect the importance of voting and knowing the issues in our local election.

So what does it say that the end of a major presidential election is predicted to curb the talk about politics? Well, to me it says that we've centered an entire election around two fallible individuals instead of the issues they represent. How typical. The issues live on and there will always be an ever-present need to discuss and address the policy that impacts communities on a daily basis. The media forces us to look at things through the wrong lens.

I like George W. Bush, but in less than 50 years, he will probably be dead--John Kerry too.