While I, a registered Democrat, did not vote for you last November and am just as unlikely to vote for you in 2010 if I were an able Arizonan, I feel for you. Republican or not, you seem like a completely honorable guy. You have served your country and your party well. Why then, I wonder, do the fates have it in for you?

First, let’s start with your downtrodden, blazingly hot state. Arizona has arguably been hit by the recession harder than any other state in the nation. In March, the University of Arizona’s forecasting project director wrote that Arizona entered the recession three months earlier than the rest of the nation and will most likely rebound from it later than all others.

He reported that in 2008, personal income increased a mere 2.7 percent, the lowest gain in more than 40 years; population grew 2.3 percent, the lowest increase in 50 years, and expected to fall to 1.4 percent this year; and unemployment rose to 7 percent, with it expected to hit a high of 9.5 percent by the end of 2009. Would-be retirees are staying at their jobs, and therefore not moving to your sunny state, and would-be immigrants from Mexico are staying put.

But everything must be going well for you in Washington at least, right? I mean, they always have. You’ve been a senator for my entire life – in fact, one of the most powerful of recent Capitol Hill history. Sure, you didn’t win the presidency, but you gave it a good run. It must be in the political realm, then, where I can stop all this feeling sorry for you crap.

Nope. In fact, recent political events have made me feel sorry for you more than anything else.

Last week, Time Magazine released its annual issue in which it names the 100 most influential people of the previous year. I figured I would find a profile on you in there somewhere, but you were nowhere to be found. But that was no biggie, as U.S. politicians were few and far between. One notable politician that was included however, was your old friend and fellow maverick Sarah Palin.

Seeing a young Republican you catapulted into the national spotlight should cheer you up, right? Nope, wrong again.

The profile, written by that idiot Ann Coulter, was the most negative one of the hundred. And who did it focus its negativity on, you ask? Well, sad to say, you.

As Coulter wrote: “Sarah Palin was arguably the most influential person in 2008, but no one notices because she wasn’t influential enough to overcome the deficits of her running mate. Until Palin, 45, burst onto the scene, Obama was headed for a Nixon/McGovern landslide. Palin may not have changed the election result, but she killed what otherwise would have been a rout. John McCain was so preposterous a candidate that Palin was responsible for far more votes than the usual vice-presidential candidate.”

While I find this untrue and hope that you can ignore such harsh words from such a harsh woman — in fact, I think we would have had a much closer election if you had not made such a poor choice of a running mate — it’s still gotta hurt at least a little bit.

What’s worse, you can likely expect more of the same when Palin’s memoir comes out next spring. So not only did you get no respect from Time nor a book offer for your dedicated campaign in 2008, but you also produced the opportunity for Palin to give you a quick thank you followed by a diatribe on how your status as an non-real-Republican held her back, which she assuredly will.

To wrap things up, President Obama — not you — was invited to speak in your home state! Sure, Arizona State University might have besmirched him a bit by not offering him an honorary degree, but do you think he wanted one from there? All the decision really did was attract national attention to how low your state’s university is in academic prowess – US News and World Report ranked the school 121st among national universities, it accepts a whopping 95 percent of applicants, and as demonstrated on The Daily Show, quite a few of its students displayed their stupidity in saying that they would be cool with giving an honorary degree to a guy like President Benjamin Franklin.

On Thursday, President Obama will be delivering the commencement address to  your son and his peers at your alma mater, the United States Naval Academy. While inviting the commander in chief isn’t too surprising, this will inevitably call attention to your not-so-illustrious career at Annapolis, where you graduated fifth from the bottom of your class.

So in conclusion, Senator, I would say that I wish you luck in the fall of 2010, but it seems like the longer you are there, the worse things are going to get. So I hope that you lose, downsize to one house, and spend the rest of your days happily, drinking Bud Lights and grilling.

Your non-party member but respectful “friend,”

Steve Adams

— Steve Adams is a graduate student in journalism and mass communication from Annapolis, Md.