I read a quote from President Obama that may or may not be authentic. Authentic or apocryphal, I like it. "Do not compare me to the Almighty", sayeth the prez, in an admission that he is not perfect. "Compare me to the alternatives". What are the alternatives? First, let's deal with the Unicorns in the horse race. Mitch Daniels is too busy destroying his popularity in Indiana to even consider a Quixotic plunge into this race. His moves on right-to-work have cost him a lot of middle class support and the Koch Brothers only have two votes. Chris Christie also recently decided to self-immolate when he rejected the marriage equality bill passed by his legislature. Although there are probably a lot of New Jerseyans who agree with him, millions of Americans agreed with Jonathan Capeheart when he told Christie that it is immoral and impractical to put civil rights to a public vote. Truly, Blacks would still be at the back of the bus, barred from the voting booth and picking cotton in Virginia if White Southerners had gotten to vote in 1963. Finally, closing out Fantasy Island, Jeb Bush, although he is vocally unimpressed with the current field, is also smart enough to know that his best chance to live where Daddy and Bro once roamed, is to wait until 2016 and run against Hilary or Elizabeth Warren. He will NOT screw that up with a failing campaign starting at this late date. So, down to the Big Four. (Yes Virginia that was sarcasm! Heh-heh). Mitt Romney, the front- runner and presumptive Republican candidate, is doing well, except...well...nobody likes him. He is like Metamucil. Prescribed as the best cure for "Obamacitis" he leaves Republicans saying, "Isn't there anything else that isn't so...unpalatable?" The on-line camapign "Mutts against Mitt" is more than a joke, folks. There have been many thousands of pet lovers turned off by the famous "Up on the Roof" rendition by the Family Romney. If a man will treat a dog this way, goes the thinking, how will he treat the poor, or minorities, or women? Fair question, says I. I just had an intuitive flash! Remember the old joke where the judge asks the guy "Have you stopped beating your wife?" Romney does that to himself, with no help from his opponents. Going out to give a speech about how much he loves cars, (in Michigan, of course) he ends up describing about six or seven vehicles he owns, including the casual line, "..and my wife has a couple of Cadillacs". Aiming for "I'm an ordinary guy who loves cars" and ending up giving the impression of "I'm so rich, my wife has an indefinite number of luxury vehicles". Of course, the "dog" story is the same thing - he set out to show what an average guy he is, with an overloaded car, and ended up revealing his disregard for the family pet. It's not that he is stupid; he isn't - exactly. He is victim to the old maxim, "If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember what you said yesterday". The corollary here is "If you are authentic, you don't have to rememeber what you set out to portray". He also has all those comments of the "The trees are the right height" which I can't comprehend, much less comment upon. Rick Santorum, by some strange quirk in the Universe, perhaps associated with the Mayan Cosmogenesis, is also still in the competition. Shall I beat the dead horse here and talk about his misogyny, or break some other ground? Ah, let's get in a couple more licks on this equine corpus before we move on. Santorum has explained that women should not be assigned to battlefield action in the military - not because they aren't capable of performing- but because their male colleagues will be so busy spreading their field jackets over puddles for the ladies that the whole bunch will be massacred. Thanks for clearing that up, Rick. By the way, Rick, that country you love and respect so much - Israel? Have you noticed that their female soldiers are pretty much just as tough, just as efficient and just as merciless as their male counterparts? (The mercilessness of angry women is something you should be thinking about a LOT these days, Rick). You have started something really big, ex- Senator (Why do we call these jerks by titles they were stripped of by the voters?) Santorum. Your obvious lack of respect for women - as well as your equal disregard for settled law and custom, has started a groundswell of action against women's rights in this country. There is no chance in Hell you will be given a pass on this. Women vote, and they are 51% of the population. Not only will you feel the sting of this no-longer-silent majority, but hundreds of other Republicans nationwide will be out of work come November and eventually they will realize it was your fault. I would not want to be you when it happens, Rick. I'd rather be Mitt's dog...or Newt's wife. But here is an interesting tidbit I found that isn't about women. It is about your purported Christianity. If you are NOT a Christian, or even NOT a good Catholic, wouldn't you agree, you pretty much have no standing to even be in this race? Let's check out this excerpt from "The Dish". Like you, I have serious misgivings about a "moral" candidate for the presidency (i.e. Santorum) defending torture techniques. From the official Catechism of the Catholic Church (2297): "Torture which uses physical or moral violence to extract confessions, punish the guilty, frighten opponents, or satisfy hatred is contrary to respect for the person and for human dignity." What I can't figure out is, why hasn't a bishop come out publicly to deny Santorum communion? When John Kerry was running for president, no less than future pope Ratzinger stated that Kerry should be denied communion, which he ultimately was. Where is Ratzinger now? Where is Raymond Burke? Sean O'Malley? So it turns out that our good Catholic Rick Santorum, such a good Catholic that he rejects the use of birth control, that 98% of Catholics support, doesn't support the Church's view on torture. Now, I have heard it said that a sin is a sin and one is not worse than another, but waterboarding, fingernail pulling, crushing testicles, breaking fingers and legs, just evokes a stronger reaction from me than the image of a woman taking a pill or a man donning a condom. I'm betting that 98% of Catholics ...even 98% of Cardinals, would share my feelings on this. Newt Gingrich is such a tool. I have nothing new to say about Newt, for the simple reason that there is nothing new about Newt. So, he announced that he will deliver $2.50 gas, if elected.* YAWN! How can that surprise me from a man who is going to build a moon colony? How can anything he says ever get our attention? What can you say after you say, bat-shit crazy, lying, meglomaniac? Again, like Newt, Ron Paul is such old news. He never changes. Remember Rudy Giuliani? (Sure you do. Try harder.) His idea of a sentence , someone said was "A noun, a verb and 9-11". Then there was Lou Dobbs's , "A noun and a verb and border security". With Paul we get variety; it can be either "A noun and a verb and 'Gold Standard' " or "A noun and a verb and 'eliminate government'." So, in essence, it comes down to Mitt, a Ken-doll, but with less charisma, or Rick Santorum, the fire-breathing re-incarnation of Torquemada, but with less restaint. Overstatement? Would you bet against torturing and hanging of unbelievers if Santorum had free-rein? Would you bet the farm against Sharia style treatment of women? Well, there is one other choice. No, not Marco,( I once was a Mormon, but magic underwear wasn't whacky enough, so I became a Catholic with magic bread and wine) Rubio, although that is certainly an interesting possibility. I was referring to the guy who already lives there. The Blues singer-cum- power forward, with the classically lovely and gracious wife and the two adorable daughters. You know who I'm talking about. Let's just all agree to settle this time. Settle for sanity. Settle for calm deliberation. Settle for that loving, caring, compassionate version of Christianity that we don't see in the other camp. The version with the "do it for the least of these" and "Love thy neighbor" and "feed the hungry"...all that old tired stuff your Grandma taught you (and his Grandma taught him). Yes, I'm gonna "settle". * Michelle Bachmann promised gas for $2.00 a gallon, so Newt went with $2.50 to appear moderate. |
