Convention Madness

Here come the conventions and lots more political wackiness. Isn’t it about time the candidates stop wearing either red or blue ties? How about a good looking Hermes or would that be too elitist? If Barack is true to himself he’ll wear a purple one on Thursday night at his “big tent” acceptance speech. And the flag lapel pins seem to have seen their day. I hope Obama skips that little touch. People seem to forget that practice started with Richard Nixon and H.R. Haldeman in the Watergate days–they were always sporting flag pins as if they were some kind of shield. It didn’t work… I really can’t wait until next week when we hear Rudy tell us all in his keynote that our lives depend on electing John McCain, who will protect us by stomping on any countries who would dare do us harm. The only problem is all our armed forces are tied up in Iraq and Afghanistan (where the big stick hasn’t exactly worked) so we might have problems protecting places like Georgia. And Osama is still on dialysis somewhere in Pakistan… On the economy front, the no new taxes approach still sounds great. Only problem is everyone wants defense, Medicare, Social Security and all the big ticket items that make up the lion’s share of the federal budget. And then on top of those must haves, taxpayers must fund all the considerable debt service we’ve already run up, because our government has registered such large deficits for so many years thanks in part to all those tax cuts. The funny thing is the Republicans always seem to win on this issue, because all the working class stiffs, who have seen their wages stagnate and healthcare costs spiral, aspire to be ultra rich and don’t want to lose anything if they get lucky and win the lottery… On Saturday, Joe Biden said Americans need leaders who will level them. I’m waiting–can we really stand the truth and will any of the candidates take the chance we can?