Debate: Nashville 2008

Our apartment is less than one block away from this "debate", and the neighborhood is brimming with anticipation and unmarked cars. I think the secret service has already cased our apartment complex, and I think I saw a guy on the roof this morning.

Several of the surrounding roads around going to be blocked off tomorrow, and I imagine it's going to cause most people to skip work. If you didn't know that it was October, you'd think it was the 4th of July. People have put out their American flags. Everyone is planning cookouts. Campaign signs. Homemade t-shirts. The display of political paraphernalia is religious.

Reporters are standing on the side of every major street broadcasting media-mumbo-jumbo far and wide; no doubt playing up our quaint little city. The president of Belmont was has been beaming for the past week. He commented in the Tennessean that an elated underclassman had asked him for a photo earlier in the week - a career first.

I've started to think of Nashville as a little Beijing of sorts; hosting our very own high stakes Olympics. The air is definitely cleaner, but the fans are much less civil. They are calling it the "Battle at Belmont," and people are taking bets on who is going to land the knock out punch. They accuse each camp of cheating and foul play. Typical.

The big dilemma is where to watch. I started getting invitations to the opposing parties debate events last week, but that seems to risky. People assume that friendship equals political kinship. Yikes. Put up your dukes Nashville. You're about to really meet your neighbors.

~ Austin