8 Days

Alfred E. Neuman said political speeches are like steer horns. A point here, a point there, and a lot of bull in between. I couldn’t agree with him any more than if I had penned that line myself. I understand the points of each candidate, and I can also tell the bull in between. Senator McCain has an economic plan which would have been called Socialist in the 50s. Senator Obama has a health care plan that will never pass the Congress and a Foreign Policy that absolutely befuddles me. Senator McCain has picked a moronic cult superstar to serve as President in the event that he can’t and Senator Obama wants to spread the wealth, not our MONEY, but THE WEALTH, a striking difference. Both candidates are so asinine that neither deserves a vote by any thinking American, but we must choose one and at this point, I don’t know which.

Which one should we choose, one that wants to stay the course in Iraq and support them when they have a surplus or one that wants to tell the enemy the general date we’ll withdraw? I can’t help but have visions of green helicopters on the roofs of embassies again. One can speak eloquently but doesn’t say anything and the other calls us all his “friends” but is vague about his plan.

The media could help us to determine where each of these candidates stand. I’ve read a lot of magazines, newspapers and policy statements over the past month, but today I watched a lot of news coverage, and the only thing I saw was the following:

1.) Sarah Palin spent a lot of RNC money on clothes.

2.) Some American Idol chick’s family got killed in Chicago. (Sad, but I didn’t need to hear about it all day.)

3.) Some chick from the view campaigned for McCain and Palin and talked some more about her clothes.

4.) Speeches from each candidate which included statements like “I need you to work for me on November 4 and then I’ll work for you, together we can change America” “He wants to spread the wealth my friends, he doesn’t share your Ohio values, he doesn’t share our American values.” and on and on.

5.) SNL Skits.

6.) There were some movies on and one of them made more money than the rest this weekend, but the take wasn’t as much as it used to be. It might be the economy.

To that last comment I said DUH out loud. I wouldn’t care if the movie business went out of business, I haven’t seen a movie worth seeing in two years.

The “press” has failed as our fourth estate. It used to provide the information that we used to make intelligent decisions as an electorate. Instead we are inundated with sound bites, highlights, advertisements masquerading as news stories and celebrity gossip. I don’t blame the media entirely, we have gotten exactly what we’ve asked for. The populace is more interested in who is dating who, who had who’s baby and which celebrity ate over-priced food at which restaurant in Hollywood than the specific policy positions of a Senator. I understand a lot of folks find government boring, but we’ve been at recess too long in this country, its time to put away the school yard games and concentrate. The bell rings next Tuesday.

An Hour and a Half Most Bizzare

I watched the vice presidential "debate" this evening. I have never seen anything like it. One candidate refused to answer the questions asked, and the other seemed to think he or she stumbled into a Texas livestock auction. I can't remember the last time I heard the word "maverick" as many times. I don't know anything more about these people than I did three hours ago. I've heard the words "phraseology", "entertaining" and "down home" from the commentators, but I haven't heard a single thing to comfort me that either of these folks could take over should the president die. I learned something useful though. If someone asks me something I don't want to answer, or something I don't have an answer for, I'll just talk about my state and use the words "Bless their hearts", "Maverick", and "Drill Baby Drill" over and over again.

I understand the value of a folksy manner. I've won many a jury trial with my folksy personality. I am not acting, that is who I am, and I've never used the real me to create a fraudulent copy that I use to my advantage. People can tell a fraud from the real deal. People can distinguish the real people from the actors. If we want to see actors, we'll go to the movies and we'll eat popcorn. I should've brought popcorn tonight because I felt like I was seeing two people acting like the people they wanted to be, rather than the people they actually were.