Perplexing events to ponder as it rains outside.

1. John McCain persists in trying to be a frontperson for a Republican Party which has little use for him.
2. Fox gave Carrie Underwood TWO HOURS of airtime for a holiday special.

Feel free to contribute any current events--great or small--you find perplexing in the comments below.

Meghan McCain gives dating tips-of-sorts, moans about how potential suitors may want to meet Dad.

Tina Brown--after editorial stints with VANITY FAIR, THE NEW YORKER, and the short-lived TALK--now has a webzine called THE DAILY BEAST.

Ms. Brown has given John McCain's daughter Meghan some blogging space. And here's Meghan on looking for the perfect man: http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-03-02/looking-for-mr-far-right/

Take away the Presidential campaign/political ideology factors and you have the standard "rich-young-daughter of a celeb" litany of complaints.

The new battle cry of the impatient young: "He/she's like.....90 years old."

I heard the above phrase yesterday from a young woman working at a corporate bookstore in the San Fernando Valley. She was using it as a part of a conversation with a male colleague.

Heaven forbid if you're a senior citizen and slow to give information to someone much younger working in a service position.

And my wife overheard someone using the exact same phrase recently.

Heartlessness is something corporate America thrives on in its search for megaprofits for just a few at the top (CEOs, large shareholders). And perhaps those citizens who think people like General Electric's Jack Welch are ubernifty--plus those who joyfully mocked John McCain (who spent the last few months self-destructing his "maverick" myth) for being "old" can take responsibility for the behavior of the young men and women who have made "he/she's like.....90 years old" a synonym for "I don't want to take any more time with you than I have to because I'm not working here forever."

Let's all prepare for the young to keep singing "We are the champions/No time for losers." And pray we have good health and enough of a nestegg to avoid going to nursing homes where impatience (sometimes physical as well as verbal) and the ever-popular rite of orderlies/nurses stealing patients' belongings are rampant realities.

Go vote today.

And so the long national nightmare ends (unless someone calls for a recount) as Barack Obama, a game-changing President, is likely to be elected today.

Which gives us the time to wave goodbye to negative campaigning, cartoon punditry on the left and the right and the pitiful sight of John "I'm owed this" McCain and Sarah "I don't have to do anything but give good Image" Palin spending their final days on the trail screeching tired old GOP bromides about not "penalizing" successful people.

For those who live in California, I heartily recommend voting No on Proposition 8--the ugly effort of a lot of unChristian Christians (which include Mormon, Catholic and James Dobson-esque fundamentalists) to end gay marriage.

In closing, I offer two modest proposals:
1. Abolish the Electoral College. Direct popular vote by 2012.
2. Amend the Constitution so Presidents can only serve one six-year term.
This would be an effective way of ending some of the partisan games, megacorporate influences and too-constant fundraising which have hobbled this great nation of ours.

John McCain: When all else fails, channel the ghost of Joseph McCarthy.

Desperate to hang onto "the base", John McCain smears both Barack Obama and THE LOS ANGELES TIMES: http://news.aol.com/elections/article/los-angeles-times-obama-khalidi-tape/230765?icid=200100397x1212447352x1200793185

McCain/Obama: When campaign reporters get too embedded in campaigns.

Here's a link to Glenn Greenwald's latest SALON column about Maeve Reston of THE LOS ANGELES TIMES bemoaning the winds of change in the relationships between John McCain and stenographer journalists on the Straight Talk Express: http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/10/29/reston/

And, correspondingly, here's a link to a LA TIMES article by Peter Nicholas about the Obama campaign where the author complains about Obama being too guarded and not chummy enough with the boys and girls of the press:http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-peter28-2008oct28,0,6187999.story