The Greatest words in the English Language

"Pitchers and Catchers report" those are the four greatest words in the English language, especially this time of year. Not just because I'm a huge baseball fan, and not just because my favorite team, the Minnesota Twins, just locked up star catcher Joe Mauer to a long term deal. It is much, much more than that. There is something inherently soothing about those words. Something about the "boys of summer" reporting to camp gives you a warm feeling even while outside the Mercury is still in the single digits. It is also so much more than just the start of another sports season. It is something that everyone dreams of, whether you are a sports fan or not, a chance to start fresh. You see, in February everyone in baseball starts at zero. Right now everyone is the same distance from the championship as everyone else. And even though there are undoubtebly some teams that will end up better off than others, that doesn't matter right now. Right now everyone is in first place. Fans of every team has the right to dream big, and say why not us? Why not this year? There is something very American about that, about everyone starting at the same spot, with the same goal in mind.

That got me thinking about the 2008 presidential election (I know it's still 620 days away, and about 500 posts on this blog away but still...) This is the time where all of the candidates start throwing their hats in the ring (officially at least, I still think Newt, and Al Gore will run even though they wont say until the fall) and everyone is sort of starting from scratch. I've been kind of drinking the Kool-Aide that Barak Obama has been serving as of late. Even though I have no idea where he stands on a number of key issues I think that he is saying all of the right things right now. He is trying to get the young votes, which is a very smart idea, by speaking about the need for a younger inexperienced voice (or a "new kind of politics" as he calls it) to go in and shake up the political system as we know it. And his plan is working. I supported McCain until his plan for a "Radical troop surge", and from a social view standpoint I agree more with Rudy Guliani, but I'm right now beginning to buy into the start fresh attitude of Obama. It's all about beginning a new. Gotta love spring!