http://www.cmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071020/OPINION/710200348/1028/OPINION02The presidential campaign season is obviously in full stride. What is not so obvious is the interest the campaigns have generated here at the state prison. I know what you're thinking: We can't even vote, so why bother? Correct, but we still have opinions, some of which might not be what you expect.
One startling example occurred the morning after the debates at Dartmouth. When I sat down for breakfast, three men were energetically discussing the strengths and weaknesses of the competitors, which just goes to show how misguided are the people who think that we prisoners concern ourselves with only the shallow and superficial, that we get our news exclusively from ESPN, or that we don't know a Democrat from Democritus.
The discussion I'm referring to focused on the electability of the debate's participants, and Hillary Clinton emerged as the consensus candidate, an opinion recently ratified by George Bush. But while she might be leading in all the national and local polls, believe me, her campaign has no legs in here, at least according to my three companions.
The first complaint I heard was the standard: Hillary was "pushy," which brought to mind the popular bumper sticker that reminds everyone that well-behaved women don't usually make history. As I listened, it became clear that Sen. Clinton's primary fault was wanting to be president. That kind of ambition in a woman, so the argument went, was unseemly. The longer the conversation lasted, the more animated the men became, until finally the descriptions of Mrs. Clinton were indistinguishable from those generally reserved for Lady Macbeth. She was running for president and had a clear plan about how to get there, but the casual listener would have thought that she had a dead king in the next room and was planning a coronation instead of an election.
I heard no complaints about any policy position, but then, state prisoners don't have to be concerned with health care, a living wage or affordable housing. I thought, erroneously as it happened, that her vote to authorize the invasion of Iraq might be an issue, but that turned out to be the single point in her favor. Support for the war looms large behind these walls, as does George Bush's decision to start it. In fact, when I look at the president's poll numbers sinking into the lower 30s everywhere else, I start to wonder if state prisoners are included in the sample just to keep him in double digits.
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