Fun With Play-Dough

As a nation, we have done our share of complaining about a government that lies. It is one of the biggest reasons that Barack Obama has been successful in gathering support; yet now that he tells the truth, he finds himself in hot water.

I am not convinced that he should be apologizing; it is human nature to get bitter when the economy tanks at such a large scale. It is also human to look for blame elsewhere, and to express that bitterness by focusing on issues that may not actually help the situation, be it immigration, religious causes, or resorting to ‘one-issue-voting’.

Barack speaks the truth, and the truth is unpopular, maybe more unpopular than the lies we have lived with so long. The lies, unfortunately, are familiar; only time will tell whether he will be able to get past this.

It is pathetic that, rather than addressing the issues, both McCain and Hillary attack the person Obama; calling him elitist is outrageous, especially coming from them. The response from both campaigns makes it abundantly clear that they don’t care about Obama’s words; they just care about chopping off his head. Once again, the smell of blood is in the air. Except this time, McCain and Hillary’s responses are eerily similar; and that is perhaps the most uncomfortable aspect of this whole firestorm.

Oh god, this must be the truest sign we are waiting too long in between primaries: Dr. Phil is commenting on the psychology of politics. Juts what we were waiting for.

However, I will be the last person to insinuate that McGraw is a stupid man, and I agree with him that the gloves have not yet come off, in spite of all the talk about the Clinton camp playing nasty. Everybody is still perfectly nice; if you don’t believe me, just wait until the Democrats finally pick a candidate, and the Repu’s know who they’re up against. They’re just waiting in the wings; they’re saving their energy for the real race.

I would, too.

So was McCain’s comment about initially voting against MLK-day as a national holiday a stupid move, or not? If he hadn’t brought it up, would anybody else have? Does anybody care? I think we all know that racial equality is not in his party’s top ten; we’d probably be surprised if it suddenly was.

I imagine there is a secret army of spin-doctors and speechwriters who put down a check mark whenever a candidate says or does something questionable. Once we are down to two candidates, and the massacre really gets under way, what are we going to hear about?

McCain is crazy and unstable; he has a temper and left his first wife to fend for herself. He’s a second Bush; nothing will change. He wants to stay in Iraq for another hundred years. Clinton is a bitch, her husband is a liability, she tells lies; Obama is too young, too inexperienced, we really don’t know him at all. He can’t bowl. He is not patriotic enough. Oh, and his former pastor is crazy.

Is that it, for now? They will have to come up with some better attacks during the coming months, if they want to keep the voters interested. Somebody, somewhere, already has a scandal waiting. Bring it on, I say.

French Foreign Minister Kouchner says the ‘magic is over’ for the United States.

I don’t find that statement insulting, just puzzling.  What magic is he talking about? The Iraq magic? Our economic magic? The moldy magic you can find growing on the walls of the FEMA trailers? Or the fairy tale magic that has ruled the White House for the past two terms?

But then, Kouchner also thinks it’s a really great idea to sit down for a nice discussion with Hamas.  Talk about losing the magic.

In other news, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright is making the rounds on YouTube. I honestly don’t know how people can listen to him week after week. I particularly like his complaint that Hillary falls short as a candidate because “she wasn’t born a poor black boy in a country that’s ruled by rich white folks”. And what, dear Reverend, do you suggest she do about that? Kill herself and pray she reincarnates? Also, I don’t think comparing Obama to Jesus is necessarily such a brilliant move. Those of us that don’t like Jesus think of him as a divisive force; the ones that do like him won’t be happy to have him be compared to a politician.  

Can anybody explain what Geraldine Ferraro was thinking? We can assume that, since she ran for Vice President once upon a time, she is a reasonably smart woman. Although, Quayle and Cheney have done their part to ruin the reputation of the VP office, so there’s that. Still, her remarks are puzzling.  Was it verbal diarrhea? Temporary insanity?

I’m strongly in favor of having Hillary in the White House, but I doubt that Obama arrived at his success “because he is black.”  I’m sorry to be pointing out the obvious, but he got there in spite of his ethnicity, in spite of a middle name that some people keep whining about, and in spite of the fact that racism is still alive and well.

We can assume that Ferraro isn’t that much of an idiot; so then, what is she actually saying? Is she assuming that this is what people are really thinking, that this is some sort of affirmative action on a very high level? That’s not only insulting to Obama; it’s insulting to the voters that checked his name on the ballot. And there are quite a few of those; she is implying that they voted based on color and gender alone. She also implies that people are ignoring the issues at stake, and that they are willing to ignore the economy, the war in Iraq, health care, to name but a few.  It suggests that most Americans can’t see further then their own nose. That may have been true in the past, but it certainly isn’t true anymore, not after eight years of Bush.

She should be ashamed of herself; this behavior does not become her. It’s time to Reject and Denounce.

Obama isn’t playing ball; he should be on board the dream-team train. There is nothing premature about the discussion of a Hillary/ Obama ticket, as some advisors have suggested; it is simply what the vast majority of Democrats want.  Period.

Obama, I know you need a big ego to run for President in the first place. You also need to be a little crazy. But now is the time to put that big ego aside, and use your head. Aren’t you trying to do what the American people want? Well, then you should at least give us a glimmer of hope, and not completely rule this out.  I’m not asking that you sign anything with your own blood, just that you leave the door open a little bit. Trust me, with bitches like Steve King out there, thinking they can get away with all kinds of racist dribble, you need a strong partner, and Hillary’s just the candidate for that.

Journalists need to stop mentioning how Spitzer was so squeaky clean up until this morning. No. I refuse to believe that; he just hadn’t gotten caught yet. And what is this nonsense about apologizing without saying what he’s apologizing for? Even my three-year-old knows better than that. If you’re sorry, tell us exactly what you did so we know there’s at least a smallish chance you’ll learn to not do it again.

Oh, how we love scandal; it’s like reality Television, except with smarter people. Sort of.