Senator Centerfold

It is finally over.  My life, my TV and my telephone have returned to a state of normalcy.

My husband and I are both classified as "unenrolled voters," which means that while we are registered to vote, we are not affiliated with any political party.  We just like the freedom of being able to choose the best candidate for the job.  It's a concept.  Besides, I'm allergic to lemmings.

In the last week of the campaign, we averaged 20 to 25 phone calls PER DAY from a variety of celebrities, elected officials, organizations and children of the candidates.  I have never been more thankful for  caller  ID, and as much fun as it was to get home from work, listen to messages and hear, "Hi, this is former President Bill Clinton" (like he was an old neighbor calling to borrow a cup of sugar)  it was really  not necessary.

The vast extent of engineering influence exercised by  lobbyists, political parties and special interest  groups --   not only how they  control the process of who gets to be a candidate,  but even the outcome itself  - has never been more apparent. I have never before  seen the amount of money, influence, media time, spin and excess that both sides spent on this campaign.  I now understand why some people do not vote.  It does not excuse them, but I understand them.   You had to live here to see it and realize the extent of it all.  When you resort to trucking in carloads  of people from other states to hold signs for your candidate,  there is some serious stink in the campaign offices.  Neither side did themselves particularly proud.

But there is something else.

Yes, Scott Brown posed for a centerfold (naked!) in his younger years.  Honestly, I could not care less. That is not why I voted for Martha Coakley.  I felt (and still feel) she was vastly more qualified for the job.  I did not  agree with her on every issue, but  I can deal with that. I didn't like her campaign, but the campaign is not the candidate. (Too many "handlers" and "experts" muck up campaigns all the time.)  What burns me is that if Martha Coakley (or any other female  political figure) had EVER posed nude, they would  never be taken seriously, much less achieve success in the world of politics.   For Scott Brown - there was no such issue.  Think we've come a long way, baby?  No. The double standard is alive and well in 2010.