Sweet Charity

In an attempt to get into shape and do something good and new, I’v decided to run the BUPA London 10,000 for the British Heart Foundation. The race is on the 25 May, which gives me adequate time to get fit enough that I can actually complete the race on two feet, hopefully ahead of the people in giant bear costumes and people walking with small children.

As much as the training is proving both an enjoyable and challenging hobby and ample distraction from the task at hand, ie – my masters, I am doing the race for the British Heart Foundation and I am hoping to raise £400 by race day. So if you feel like helping me out in my efforts to raise the money, please go to my sponsorship page here. It’s a quick, easy and safe way to donate money.

The British Heart Foundation is a truly worthwhile charity that devotes its time and resources to research, support and care fort hose living with heart conditions. Money used to sponsor me can fund research, nurses and home support for heart patients. You could help to make someone living with a heart condition’s life much more comfortable. That’s got to be worth a few quid surely!

So, please do support me. I’ll hopefully do you proud by not falling on my face on race day. yay!

Life Lessons #3: Dos and Doughn’ts of comfort baking

Do:  Make sweet sweet triple chocolate cookies after a frustrating day with a glass of wine and the lovely Fleet Foxes in the background.

Don’t:  Insist upon dessimating the cookie dough supply by eating it by the spoonful straight from the mixing bowl. You will feel like a complete sow when you wake up in the morning. I learnt this. I feel richer for the experience, but that is probably just a temporary richness brought on my so much chocolate.

They are delicious cookies though…

Electro Pop <3 <3

I just wanted to share my thoughts on how much I love the new wave of electro pop that is taking over music. I don’t know about Ireland, but in London I’m very excited about new acts such as Little Boots and Ladyhawke. there’s just something so pretty, fun and enjoyable about it. It’s an addictive sound, with some lovely lyrics to boot. the tunes I’ve heard so far from these too have left me in anticipation of what else is going to come our way in 2009. (In particular check out the extended version of Stuck on Repeat by Little Boots, and Meddle, my personal favourite. Also, my Delerium and Paris is Burning by Ladyhawke.)

In this vein of thought, I have allowed myself to become entirely swept up by the pop electronic revolution and have come up with a name for my (hypothetical) electro pop outfit. Are you ready: The GinandTronics! Don’t you want to go to see them already? The only thing missing form the mix (geddit? it just gets more perfect!) is another member (to justify the plural) and some talent/ability to make decent electro music. but I have decided that the latter is superfluous to requirements these days. If Peaches Geldof can forge a career on being a talentless poser, so can I. and I’ll even be nice to people.

What Passes for News These Days

It’s amazing really what qualifies as news in turbulent times. Obviously, you have the whole ‘world in financial crisis’ headline. But after the soul-destroying first half hour of news each day you get the fluff stories. Not just the usual fluff stories, but the kind of random fluff that is the least likely thing ever to make you feel good in a financial crisis.

Example one: Ringo Starr has stopped answering his fan mail. After the 20th October he will no longer respond to fan mail or sign any memorabilia. He’s too busy.

Example two: We’re all screwed except for cobblers and pizza take aways. apparently people are getting their shoes repaired rather than replace them and staying in is the new eating out.

Where do they get this stuff? Supposing we do care that one of the remaining two Beatles is a cranky old ass or that the ones on the up during the global crisis are cobbler and pizza boys, is it not the saddest thing in the world that this is the good news? A few weeks back the Guardian were running random photos of baby pandas on the inside of the cover. Now THAT is good fluff.

Gordon’s Masterstroke : It Might Just Work

It’s been a turbulent week for the Labour Government. Rumours of an internal plot to elbow Gordon Brown out, a fall in popularity over the worsening economic situation and very public blame being laid at Brown’s doorstep by David Cameron at the Conservative Conference have made the future of Brown’s government look decidedly dicey.

The smart-suited slick young foreign minister David Miliband looked likely to slide into Brown’s job should the rumoured putsch go ahead. He appeared confident at the Labour Conference last week and said that he supported Brown to the end. Yet interestingly when he talked about policies that had gone bad he was defending what ‘they did’ but when he talked about the future of the New Labour government it was what ‘we’ would do to fix it. I have to say, I felt sorry for Brown as Miliband’s smarmy words woved an even more complex web of doubt around him. When he stood up to speak about the troubled leader, Miliband defended Brown based on his work in the area of foreign relations (surpise surprise) and not on any of the things Brown had set out to do.

Then came the lack of confidence of his party. Ruth Kelly announced she was stepping down as Transport Secretary for ‘family reasons.’ John Cruddas turned down Brown’s offer of a government job. Things were not looking good for the PM.

Then Brown pulled, what I think was, a masterstroke. He hopped in his time machine and went back thirteen years to before Peter Mandelson ditched him for that dashing young firecracker, Tony Blair, and asked Pete to help him mend his sinking ship. Yes indeed, the thirteen year feud is over and Mandelson has thrown the cat well and truly amongst the pidgeons. Yes, while the new kids were pulling strings all around Brown in an effort to make everything unravel around him, the old man showed the whippersnappers how it’s really done by bringing in the Mandelson. No one seems to have any idea what to do about this or how to react. Miliband has been put back in his box. And Cameron is where he belongs – in cartoons in the back of the Observer.

What does this mean for Brown and the future of the cabinet? Well, I won’t deny that it’s clutching at straws. But in the game of political clutching at straws, this really is how it’s done. Find the most unlikely, obscure, headline making straw that is so obviously a big old crutch of a straw that everyone is too impressed by your gall to be sceptical. The media is having a field day and is too excited by the reigniting of the torch of the government of 1998 to get on Gordon’s back about this. Realistically, this is a change, but not enough of a change to alter the fate of the party. Unlike the scenario in the US, the party that has been in government too long really seems to be trying hard to show they should stay there by making themselves different (well, different form the last 5 years anyway.) It’s a more stylish straw clutching. It might save Brown’s ship from sinking in a humiliating fashion in the middle of an economic tempest, and keep it on course long enough to see it safely into the dock. But make no mistake, the doc is where it’s heading. Or at least it should be. It’s been 11 years of the Labour government, and Brown didn’t come in to trumpets blaring. It’s time to call time on the government, but not with some attempt to jump on the back of Brown while he flounders.

Bring on the next election, and let Brown bow out gracefully as he leads his party with pride. I hope he’ll be handing the keys to the Lib Dems, an inherently sensible party, but I live in the real world most of the time, so it’ll probably be the Tories. But I think a few years is just what New Labour needs to get focused on what makes Labour a worthwhile party in the first place, and to really sort things out within the ranks and become a party with a vision, a hunger and the ability to shape the furture of Britain.

Banoffee Pie

Banoffee pie is great really. If you enjoy baking then you will appreciate how easy but satisfying it is to make. If you’re not much of a baker but you’d like to give it a go, then banoffee pie is probably the best dessert to know how to make. There’s no actual baking involved, so you get to avoid all the confusion of kneeding, crumbing, folding etc., it’s not at all complicated to make and it looks quite fancy. It’s also a good dessert to know if you ever have to go to a dinner or birthday party and think you should bring something. It’s the kind of thing you could make with your kids without them burning themselves or you wanting to throttle them for doing it wrong. It’s also, as I discovered today, a great dessert to make for your cake loving housemate on his birthday when you don’t have a clue what he would like or any money to buy him a present.

Here’s how I make banoffee pie:

Ingredients:

For the biscuit base:

1 packet of Hob Nobs (i use plain, but if you like, go for chocolate.)

150g butter

For the toffee filling:

1 can of condensed milk

80g dark brown sugar

80g normal/caster sugar

170g butter

For the top:

4 large bananas

300ml double cream

1 cadbury’s flake

Method:

1. Put the hob nobs in a plastic sandwich bag and crush them into crumbs using a rolling pin. (or if you don’t have one, like me, whatever round blunt implement you can find. I use a teabag caddie.)

2. melt the butter in a pan and stir in the biscuit crumbs. Once it’s mixed, spoon the mixture into a loose-bottom cake tin. (9inch) If you don’t have one of these either ask your neighbour, like I do, or use a deep pyrex dish or cake tin. smooth the biscuit mixture across the tin and slightly up the edges. Pop in the fridge for 1/2 an hour.

3. While the base is in the fridge, make the toffee. Heat the butter and sugar in a pan and stir until all melted into syrup. Pour the can of condensed milk into the ban. Bring this mixture to the boil, stirring all the time. It’s turn into a light brown, thick caramel. Be really careful bringing to the boil as being spattered by boiling toffee is not fun. so keep the heat low enough.

4. Once the toffee is ready, pour it over the biscuit base. smooth it so that it covers the whole base evenly and then return to the fridge for an hour and a half.

5. Fast forward an hour or so – peel and chop up the 4 bananas and whip the cream. Once the toffee has set, remove the tin from the fridge and cover the toffee with the sliced banana. Keep some banana for decoration.

6. Spoon the whipped cream over the banana until the pie is completely covered. use the remaining banana to decorate the pie. Then crumble the Flake all over the top to add the finishing touch.

Put the pie back into the fridge to eat whenever you feel like it.

And there you have it! Interestingly, this recipe for the toffee is how I decided to make it, but if you actually boil the can of condensed milk unopened for 2 hours, keeping the water topped up the whole time and the pot covered so the water doesn’t evaporate, the condensed milk actually turns into caramel. Once made, this toffee can actually be stored in the cupboard until you need it. Which it pretty cool.

Happy pie-making!

The New Adventures of Esshmeryurareyer….

Firstly, I have to apologise for the lack of updates to the blog in recent times. The last week has involved a lot of settling in, getting organised and, more importantly, exploring. I think it’s more valuable to go about actually living/reading/meeting people than it is to update a blog daily based on random brainfarts, so I’ve been out there living a wee bit. And let me tell you, London is a pretty good place for that sort of thing. And not just the breathing in breathing out type of living, but the actually enjoying yourself type of living. I’m not going to turn this in to an extended version of a postcard or a primary school news copy, but I will share a few of my favourite bits of London so far. So I don’t forget, if for nothing else.

I’m living in a predominantly Turkish community, with a large black population also. As I walk around the high street in the middle of the day I stand out like a sore thumb. I’m definitely the neighbourhood short, blonde oddball. The major benefit to living where I do is that I am surrounded by ridiculously tasty, ridiculously cheap Turkish food. It turns out this food is ideal for me as it has all the tasty parts of Eastern food, with none of the spice. I’m going to be fat as a fool in no time, but I honestly will be too contented to care.

The other great thing about the neighbourhood is the fabulous little arthouse cinema just down the road. I’ve made it my business to make Monday nights my cinema night (cheap tickets on a Monday). It’s called the Rio and it’s liek the Kino in Cork, but with wider options for grazing and a bigger auditoriom. They sell cake, popcorn, coffee. It’s wonderful. So far I’ve been to The Wave and Linha de Passe. (Former more interesting/engaging than the latter, with the latter more likely to clean up at film festivals and award ceremonies.)

The really strange thing about London is that nobody can seem to say my name. I understand that it is an Irish name and no one has heard of it, but it only has four letters and is pronounced phonetically. I’ve had the extreme reaction in a Hoxton nightclub of ‘EMER – Are you taking the piss? What kind of name is that?’ to which I meekly responded…’uh, I don’t know, it’s just what I’m called.’ More often than not, people just politely do the introductions and then ten minutes later when parting rather awkwardly go ‘Emhrmiraryer’ through their fingers as they grasp for the right name. One Indian guy I met in my course induction got straight to the point and asked me to say it twice and then spell it. We had no more problems then, but the downside was that the exercise was so drawn out that I forgot his name… So basically, I’m getting used to being looked at like some kind of Irish version of a Pokemon.

As well as settling into the college side of things and doing all the boring bits to do with banks and phones and things, I have been doing the culture thing as much as I can while I’ve had the free time. Enjoyed a visit to Tate Modern last week. To be honest, don’t really get a lot of modern art. It’s not bad, but I, personally, can only get so much from coloured squares or a picture of a hamburger. I do love a lot of the photographs they have in there though, particularly ones from the 1930s and 1940s, as well as a numbe rof their more political exhibits. (My particular favourite was the room of Soviet propaganda posters.)

The Imperial War Museum was much more my type of thing. An interesting, if slightly reserved and unmissably British, Holocaust exhibition was one of the things that I spent a particularly long time perusing. The Secret War section was definitely the best part. It was so interesting. There were examples of equipment used in Secret Service operations, such as Nazi insignia and pens with hidden bugs, as well as written records of missions undertaken during wartime by the Secret Service. There was also a room at the end of the exhibition designed to ‘make you think’ about the need for and dangers of secret wars, and the significance of the secret service in the history of Britain and in the protection of British subjects. Plenty of quotes from world leaders adorned the walls. Churchill’s 1945 quote stood out to me: In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies. Many of the quotes struck me because they were said over 50 years ago, but could easily have been said in modern times. It does make you think, which I suppose is the point of museums.

Anyway, I’m enjoying life here so far. If all the above didn’t do it for me, the builings, parks, rivers, canals, markets, shops and food probably would seel the deal. I’m very excited about starting my course next week, so hopefully, when I do, that will be another thing to add to the list. I’m optimistic.

New!! : McCain Action Man

A great change is facing the world. A rogue politician plans to upheave current systems and affect everything from climate change to civil rights to the economy to healthcare to international policy. Only one man can stop Barack Obama in his diabolical scheme. Only one man can keep everything exactly the same. He is the greatest war hero of them all. That’s right, it’s John McCain.

Yes, there is a new Action Man figure due to be released this November. The figure is slightly different to the vintage Action Man dolls – for instance it doesn’t have the same fuzzy hairstyle, going for the aerodynamic look, or the same posable arms – but toy manufacturers are assuring the American public that this new Action Man is THE greatest hero of them all.

He may not have the features we have all come to know and love in our favourite hero, but he has been around longer than Action Man himself, and has more combat experience.

This new McCain Action Man may look less agile than earlier models, but he does all his own stunts. Yes, a strategic genius, he is one soldier that knows exactly the right weapon to use when his enemy starts to look strong.

Barack Obama may think he and his team can outsmart our hero with their straight forward politics and commitment to their word, but nothing can stop our hero on his quest for the White House. After all, he is older than dirt with more scars than Frankenstein.* Real scars too – ones from torture, and losing to Bush and, torture, and being called a homosexual. To make it through such ordeals without changing your stance or your outlook on the world even one inch is the mark of a true American hero.

So this November, get yourself and the whole family down to Walmart to get your exclusive John McCain Action Man doll. You’ll find it in aisle five between the live ammunition and baby seal harpoons.

*It is assumed that McCain meant the monster of Frankenstein and not the scientiist himself who has no known of scars of note, at least not in Mary Shelley’s unabridged version of the book. Being an American hero though, i assume he has not had time to read this book and is thus forgiven.

What’s the Story Now?

It’s official, I am a Londoner now, and my blog title makes no sense anymore really. The photo on the front is of the harbour in Cobh, not the River Lee as it used to be, and I no longer live on the banks of the Lee. I’m a lie, a sham, a fraud. I just don’t think that Thoughts of a Cork Girl Living in London Story has the same ring to it. I’d rather be a fraud than a losebag. And so, the blog stays. Except I will be posting from London now. You have been told.

I just got here this morning and was greeted by blues skies sunshine and friendly birds. In case there was any fear I had stepped into a Disney movie, these birds were big old pigeons and the signs explicitly stated that I was not to feed the little buggers. 

The area of Hackney where I am living is food heaven. There are (cheap) Turkish restaurants everywhere and if you stroll a few more minutes down the road there are Vietnamese restaurants everywhere. The best fish and chip shop in all the borough is around the corner, and there is a market that sells all sorts of fruit and veg. on Thursdays and Fridays. Anyone who knows of my love for food will understand how happy all of this is maikng me.

In terms of the house itself, the plasterers have been in and are supposed to be gone by now, but they still haven’t finished. Consequently I haven’t been able to fully move into my room yet, but it is the first one to be done and until then I’ve been given a temporary room, so I’m happy enough. Just a bit of suitcase living until the place is painted. It will be nice though having a nice, clean freshly decorated room. And I  found a shop that only sells things for 98p down the road, so i’m going to furnish it almost exclusively with things from there. Classy, like. Oh, and there is an Argos across the road for all my flatpacking needs.

So other than that, it’s all bout settling in, looking around and enjoying the city until I start college next week. You could say the world is my Oystercard. (badum-cha!)…I’ll get my coat.

How to Win Elections and Influence People

The time is fast approaching when Americans will have to go out and vote for either John McCain or Barack Obama to be the next president of the United States. The race has been under the microscope of the whole world for the last 2 years, give or take, and it’s nearly over. I’m not American and I can’t vote, but I, like the rest of the world, have an opinion and a preference. Some people I know don’t ‘get’ why you would become so immersed in an election in a country where you have no voice or say in the matter. I don’t understand this. People support and wear the jerseys of football teams in countries they’ve never been to as if their life’s blood depends on it. In less than 2 months, there will be an event that may result in an elderly man and the mom at the parent teacher night who wants to ban certain school books and teach kids that we were all made by God and global warming is just his way of giving us central heating and more running water, taking control of America. This to me is something worth keeping an eye on.

From early on in the election, I have supported the Democrats. Initially, I was a supporter of Hillary Clinton, and now I am a supporter of Barack Obama. I’ve been involved with so many discussions with people that seem utterly pointless to me, (the discussions, not the people..mostly) because they are essentially arguments about whether you should want a liberal government or you should want a conservative government. For many many people, politics and opinions are non-negotiable. Some people just won’t entertain supporting a man who thinks gay couples should have the same rights as straight couples and some people won’t hear of voting for someone who believes that life begins at conception. That’s politics, that’s life. I have learned to accept that. You won’t change people’s minds on these issues, and inevitably, you reach a deadlock and noobody gets anywhere.

It’s the in-betweeners that are the interesting ones. The swingers, the ones who could go either way. The last leg of the race is all about securing their votes and it is interesting to look at the tactics being used by both parties as the polls become close to neck and neck and the candidates scramble to make up the minds of the undecided. I have already expressed my distaste at the negative campaigning of the Republican Party. Up until recently, while I would not vote Republican, I was okay about the fact that some people did and just hopeful that more people would agree with me. If the outcome was the other way, I’d say ‘hey that’s democracy folks’ and deal with the fact that 4 more years of Republican government is what the people want. But it was around the time that John McCain stopped focusing on why Americans should vote for him and his party and started focusing on why they shouldn’t vote for Obama that I started to see more serious problems with the Republican campaign.

In the lead-up to both conventions, the candidates were busy selecting running-mates, rallying up support, and planning their approaches. Obama chose Joe Biden, Ted Kennedy, the Clintons, his family and change. McCain chose Sarah Palin, Rudi Giuliani, Fred Thompson, Joe Lieberman and er, change. Obama chose criticising the Republicans for being the same old party doing things the same old way. The Republicans criticised Obama’s lack of experience against the tried and tested McCain, and the elitism of the Democratic Party.

It had obviously become clear to McCain and his advisors that the experience platform was not getting him all that far, so it was decided that he should hi-jack the change platform to secure the all-important post-convention bounce. So John McCain picked a woman who has less than 2 years experience as governor of the 3rd least populated state in America to be his running mate. Here was his change. (the first woman on a presidential ticket) Here was his weapon against elitism. (She’s just a hockey mom like you) Here was his attempt at bringing the party into modern America. (She’s young too)

I could go all day criticising the politics of the Republicans and of Palin. I don’t agree with a lot of their positions on civil rights, abortion, gay rights, security, censorship and so on and so forth. But what’s more terrifying to me than your average Republican government is the prospect of someone who nobody knows, with negligible experience in governance and who potentially thinks that some children’s books should be banned and that dinosaurs roamed the earth 4,000 years ago getting into the White House. If McCain doesn’t make it through the first term, she will be president, and I think he has overlooked his principles, politics and vision in the interest of selling his campaign and sealing his position. In his efforts to thwart the ‘change’ juggernaut, he has brought in a woman with hardly any experience as his VP. This, in my eyes, is a serious error in judgement. He has put someone who he has only met twice prior to his announcement that she would be running with him and who nobody outside of Alaska has ever heard of in a position where she may be the President of America in less than 4 years. This for me is unforgivable. I can get over the fact that people don’t agree with me when it comes to politics and social issues (just about) but when those people forget their own principles and paths in the interest of winning, I think we are in serious trouble. There is nothing worse than giving power to people who don’t really believe in what they are fighting for but will fight to the death anyway to win. That’s what McCain is doing by choosing Sarah Palin, that’s why I don’t want him to win and that’s why I think it will be a travesty if he does win.

It is, as I said, all about getting those swing voters, and McCain is certainly trying to reel in as many of those as he can by putting Palin on the ticket. In the Democrat camp, Obama has been doing his best to swing those votes in his direction by plugging the holes in his campaign with Joe Biden – the experienced foreign policy expert. He has also been (rather shamelessly) using his family for the aw factor in his attempt to secure middle-American-mum votes that Clinton would have clinched. At no part of this did Obama cease to become a sensible politician. He did receive criticism for his choice of an old hand as his VP, but the method in the madness was clear. It made sense. Palin makes no sense to me. I think she is a seriously miscalculated attempt at securing the Clinton percentage, and makes a terrifying prospective president.

What scares me the most is that people might not actually see how bad a choice she is. McCain’s decision might just be taken for granted as being sound by his supporters and go under the radar of the swing voters. People may not notice that although Palin is a woman, she stands no more for feminism, anti-sexism and women’s rights than your average white-haired male Republican governor. McCain will be hoping that voters will swallow the pitch that Palin is a product of the good fight put up by women like Hillary Clinton, but as the dust settles on the ’strong woman getting on the ticket’ excitement, Palin’s views on reproductive rights and abortion rise to the surface and it all looks a bit familiar.

McCain will also be hoping that (in an odd attempt at combating sexism?) that Palin’s ‘hockey mom’ status will win the hearts of middle class Americans everywhere. Her views on censorship of school books, global warming and teaching Creationism in schools are all important indicators that not every middle class mom should be running the country.

I hope that people see that the fight for women’s rights was not about ‘getting a woman in the White House’ but about someone who is well equipped to lead and happens to be a woman having the same opportunities and getting the same treatment as any male candidate. Palin is not someone who broke through the ceiling that Hillary made millions of cracks in, she is a product and installation of the same old machine that has croaked and groaned for years. She just has nicer hair that Mitt Romney or Rudy Giuliani and less of a reputation, on account of her not being known. This isn’t a victory for feminism.

All of this is very well, but the reason the McCain-Palin ticket is so worrying is that people might actually buy that the addition of Sarah Palin actually does stand for change and a victory for the new right or for women. You have to wonder whether there is anyone who can reach out to voters and persuade them otherwise. Obama risks stepping too far into the territory of negative campaigning by labouring on the issue, especially seeing as he has come under fire following his ‘bulldog lipstick’ comment last week. When it comes to influencing people, the media really is the major source for getting your point home. In American culture it is celebrities and television personalities that really have a large pull.

In Team America, there is a running joke about actors who speak out on politics, and when it comes to the likes of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, I would tend to agree with the general opinion that celebrities and actors should tick to regurgitating what is on their scripts rather than in the news. But I came across a couple of fantastic clips today that made me rethink the value of the ‘celebrity pundit factor.’ First off was the Saturday Night Live sketch parodying Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton. (Tina Fey makes a frighteningly good Palin.) I then found a clip of Matt Damon talking about his worries over the prospect of Palin gaining control. He compares Palin’s path towards the White House as being like a really bad disney movie where the hockey mom ends up being president. Far from the hapless ‘Matt Damon’ puppet from team America, I actually found myself hoping people would watch the video and listen to his concerns about her opinions on Creationism, her lack of experience, and her plans to ban children’s books. If watching shows like the Daily Show and Saturday Night Live and making your mind up based on what Hollywood film stars think is what works with your average American, then so be it. If this reaches people, which Digg and CNN coverage would indicate it is, then it’s a force of good as far as I’m concerned. As campaigning gets dirtier and the delivery and party line gets more polished and rehearsed-sounding, then it may be down to the third party’s to air their views and influence the undecided.

It will be interesting to see if the consequences of adding Palin to the ticket will work in favour of the Republicans or not. I wonder if the combination of the liberal media, American comedians, satirists, public figures and outspoken celebrities will be enough to wipe the sheen off the McCain-Palin ticket and prevent the addition of the Alaska Governor from overshadowing the issues at the centre of the presidential race. Change is not just a word or a superficial shift in how things are done. Sarah Palin may not look like any Vice President or President in recent times, and she may be the least experienced candidate for either office in modern American history, but that does not make her any different when it comes to the issues. Soon we shall see whether the American people want real change in the form of Barack Obama or just the same old policies, doctrines, stances and plans as the Bush administration in the slightly different packaging of John McCain and Sarah Palin. I hope it’s the former, but judging by the surge in the polls on the Republican side since the addition of Palin to the ticket, I’m not so sure anymore. I don’t know what it’s going to take to win this election for either side, because it’s genuinely becoming impossible to know just what it is the American people want.