The American Family

The Republicans have found a new way to focus attention on this election. Issues be damned. Who wants to think about all those pressing problems like high prices, mortgage payments, health care bills, terrorism, wars, and global warming to name just a few. No, what voters want is to feel a close affinity with the next presidential team. Remember in 2004 the real issue boiled down to who would be more fun to go out and drink a beer with - Kerry or Bush. The effete Kerry was no match for the former hard drinking Bush.

The GOP strategists realized that the McCain family could not be the Brady Bunch for the new century. John and his wife had older children (including a child adopted that was non white). That would not be the ticket. So now John and Cindy are taking on the role of the Mertzes and Sarah and Todd are the new Ricardos.

And what a family they are. Just like you and me. Gun toting folks who actually go out to the woods and shoot their own dinner. Die hard snowmobilers. Active parents who still are having children well into their forties. And to trump everything, a teenage daughter who is pregnant and will most likely get hitched as soon as she graduates from high school.

You see, the Palins are "The American Family". They are not black like that other couple. They did not go on to snooty Ivy League schools for educational enlightenment. (Gosh, it doesn't look like any of their kids want to go to college anyway). They are ravenous meat eaters while Michelle and Barack seem oh so picky about their diet. Yeah, they have two cute daughters, but they decided to put up stakes in a leafy Chicago neighborhood that most of us could not buy into.

The Republicans win elections because they have mastered the art of ethnic identification. The country can lose its moorings, thousands can die in a war, millions can lose their homes, and the air that most of us breathe causes all types of sickness. But what the heck? The President can't fix everything.

The advisers around McCain have found their way. They know that Sarah and Todd are relating to so many. Don't most families have pregnant daughters? Don't most families have children from ages 0 to 20 living in one house? Life is hard and the Palins are living proof. No fancy cars, college scholarship funds, or balanced eating plans for this family. Like Bush, the majority of Americans would much rather hang out at the hockey rink with Sarah and company than go to an urban playground and shoot hoops with Barack.

We could only wish that people would wake up to this ploy and realize the opportunity they will be kissing away if they elect McCain and his Northern Exposure partner. Perhaps, the Republicans might panic if the polls don't consistently show them with the best chance of winning this election. Children, guns, and pregnancy might not be enough to reach every American. So could the Palins stretch things out for just a short month or two? Maybe a new revelation that one of their children is gay? That would reach a new demographic. A little drunken driving episode (oh that already happened).

You get the idea. Use the Palins as the ultimate reality show. Keep the ratings up for the next sixty days. Fill the tabloids with all this junk and keep clearer minds from seeking the truth. Hey, what a way to win an election!

Six For President

GUEST POSTING BY BIG V

Some random observations after viewing what CNN billed as a debate. (Hillary won and is winning so we will leave her alone for now)

Barack Obama has been a professor longer than he has been a REAL Senator. He appeals to that college educated crowd because he is one of them. It seems that he can always give a great intellectually sound speech, but when it comes to debates he has very small pauses and stutters. He doesn't know how to create momentum and he doesn't know how to sustain strong points he may have.

John Edwards is too much of a lawyer when he attacks Clinton. And John Edwards seems more and more like the Mitt Romney of the Democrats.

Joe Biden and Chris Dodd seem like the same guy. They both seem to be that caring gray haired uncle that shows up a few times a year for holiday dinners. Maybe Biden should have run last time around. I still have no idea why Dodd is up there. At least Biden brings in his foreign policy ideas.

Bill Richardson is great. And he is fat and wears some suits that do not quite fit.

Kucinich - well he's there for the UFO factor.

Although having seven candidates during a debate takes away from the real race between Clinton and Obama/Edwards it works out to their mutual advantage because they don't have to make big stands on abortion or gay rights or other issues like that. Time and time again these questions go to the lower tier candidates where they get to finally talk as much as they want. So once these guys make the classic liberal case the top three can just say they agree. Compare that with the Republicans who are still caught up in the "Reagan mantle" debate.

Hysteria!

She is coming. Coming to Washington D.C. Elvira Arellano, the evil face of Hispanic illegal immigration, is coming to pray and fast on the National Mall September 12th to protest her impending sentence of banishment from the USA. The hard working mother is the innocent victim of an anti-Hispanic, anti-illegal immigrant hysteria that is sweeping some sectors of our once open and loving society. No one is immune from this racial hared. Arch conservative Arizona Senator John McCain has recently disclosed that he has received death threats for his stance that illegals could have a long and difficult path to eventual recognition and citizenship. This common sense approach supported by a broad swath of politicians from both parties has become entangled by the need for GOP presidential candidates to go "as far right" as possible as they vie for the nomination of their party. Exploiting this fear and hatred, possible contender, Newt Gingrich has used the horrific shootings in Newark, New Jersey as an example of what happens when the illegals are allowed to run free in our country. Obviously this is pandering of the worst kind. If there was a program to identify illegals then criminals like those who shot four innocent African-Americans in Newark could have been brought to justice look before the horrible incident took place. So that brings us back to Ms. Arellano. She is actually the face of the great majority of illegal immigrants: Spanish speaking and hard working. Elvira is the mother of one son and all she wants to do is work, support her family, and do what she can to survive. She has been living in a Chicago area United Methodist Church where even the feds are fearful of storming to remove her. However, the blood lust of the right knows no bounds and the days are probably numbered when a young innocent woman and child will find sanctuary in God's house.