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Election Road Trip, Day 17: Another Loss…And Latest Column

By Joe Klein | @JoeKleinTIME | September 23, 2010 | +

Joe Klein on the road. Photograph by Peter van Agtmael - Magnum for TIME


Phoenix, Az.

Traveling Companion: None

Events: Long drive through a desert rain

I’ve been enjoying the natural world, for a change, as I’ve been driving along, but things keep getting in the way. I was simply blown away by the eastern vista as I came down through Raton Pass into New Mexico–just a spectacular buff khaki American vastness, with distant mesas interrupting endless grasslands in a randomly gorgeous manner that suggested a master plan, when I noticed a police cruiser behind me, gumballs atwirl: I’d been doing 77 in a 65 zone…on a fierce downhill. Gimme a break, dude! And he did: I escaped with a warning.

Then, driving through eastern Arizona in a desert rain that tinged the tan grassland dim olive-gray, my ipod seized up and died. Uh-oh. I’m now forced to listen to local radio, which is filled with ads for zero-interest mortgages that just reek of deception. More on that as we continue west. The iPod gave me one last gift of serendipity. As I left Fort Carson, overwhelmed by my reunion with Captain Ellis and Sgt. Robison, on came Joan Baez, singing “The Band Played Walzing Mathilda,” about a young Australian soldier who loses his legs at Gallipoli–may be one of the six saddest songs ever written.

Now I know you’ll say: just buy a new ipod. Of course, but the computer with my songs is back in New York. So what do I do? Suggestions?

Meanwhile, here’s my latest print column about life among the Republicans.

This post is part of my Election Road Trip 2010 project. To track my location across the country, and read all my road trip posts, click here.

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  • beelkay

    Have someone at home buy a new iPod, put songs on it for you, and send it to where you’ll be! Lord knows I wouldn’t want you to have to continue to listen to the radio…I hate commercials, whether they’re for zero-interest mortgages or restaurants or whatever the morning show host is pitching at the moment. :0P

  • kevin

    As long as Joe’s out there in the real world, I thought I might pass along this nice series of articles in the NYTimes about the changes that health care reform is bringing to actual Americans.
    .
    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/23/health/policy/23careintro.html?ref=health
    .
    It’s a good reminder that this election isn’t just a horse race. Real people’s lives are going to be impacted.

  • chupkar

    No NPR? I agree wiht the above suggestion. Overnight that baby.

  • Ivy_B

    Should try to get NPR and see how far right it has moved in order to be “unbiased.” Good-bye factual reporting only.

  • southernbell49

    I think the short for answer for Dems is “We’re not Greece, we’re more like Germany and the fact that the Republicans don’t understand this shows how inept they are when it comes to the economy”.

    Didn”t Germany ward off truly bad times by using government money to keep people employed so they didn’t get laid off and have to find new jobs?

    I haven’t heard the US media talk about the fact that some economists believe “protective” lay-offs, that is letting people go before a company hits hard times, is actually counter-productive for said company. If people don’t have a job, they don’t spend. Which means other companies have to lay off people because of loss of customers, which means more business will have to shed employees.

    The obvious metaphor is a domino: if one falls a chain reaction sets in. You might be five hundred miles from the first domino but once the lynch-pin breaks, you’re going to topple over, too.

  • swissArmyBrainBETA

    ‘economy is dragging –> due to uncertainty –> make tax cuts permanent!’ i’m still kinda new to this and already republicans spinning EVERYTHING as a reason to cut taxes is starting to seem comical. by the time i’m 40 it’s gonna be reeeeeaaaaaaaaly old

  • acvmd

    Haven’t kept up with what kind of phone you’ve got… but instead of another iPod, make the leap to a fancy smartphone, and then use Pandora to listen to music you like or new stuff you will like.

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