Did you ever...

Have you ever seen anything like it? The McCain campaign I mean. Can you believe that McCain has actually succeeded in getting two (perhaps more) days of media coverage by inventing a mostly fictitious character called Joe the Plumber? When you don’t dare to talk about the issues because you know you will lose the election if you do, what do you do? First, you try to trash your opponent. When that appears to backfire where do you turn? How do you get everyone’s attention diverted from the issues you do not dare to confront? Why…you invent a mostly fictitious character called Joe the Plumber and you claim, among other things, that Obama is picking on him. Joe the plumber supposedly claimed that if he realized his dream of buying a plumbership (if that’s what you call it) he would have to pay more taxes because of Obama’s tax proposals. The fact that there is barely a thread of truth in this absurd charade seems to have escaped the MSM who have spent the last two days featuring it as something newsworthy. As it turns out, Joe the Plumber is not even a plumber. Whether he is even a plumber’s helper is even in doubt because he has no license to be either plumber or assistant plumber. Then there is the fact that he has apparently no chance whatsoever to buy the business. If he did buy the business, and if it was successful, it would not make a profit of $250,000 per year and would not be subject to any new taxes. Joe the Plumber is also in arrears on his last year’s taxes, is a right-wing loony, thinks Social Security is terrible, and obviously understands virtually nothing about tax plans or anything else. This is a complete non-issue that should not have occupied anyone’s time for more than 30 seconds. But Joe’s house has been ringed with news-people, he’s been interviewed, vetted, examined, and whatever, more than a mere 15 minutes of fame. He finally admitted that yes, under Obama’s tax plan he would in fact pay less in taxes. This is a sad commentary on the state of our news-people, but we have known about them for some time now, inept, uninterested in real news, lazy, partisan and basically useless for the purposes they should be serving. For the past eight years, at least, they seem to have confused reporting with stenography. Can you believe that McCain actually claimed in a speech today that Obama was attacking Joe the Plumber. This episode is so bizarre, so hysterically ridiculous, so devoid of meaning, so pointless, so almost incomprehensible, so beyond the pale, lacking in merit or substance it simply makes a complete mockery of our election system. Frankly, something like this should disqualify a candidate on the grounds that they are not being serious. This is, after all, an election to pick the leader of the most powerful and influential nation on earth. Joe the (fake) Plumber is merely a figment of McCain’s apparently diseased imagination, along with that woman he imagines could actually be President of the United States. It should have been made clear to McCain some time ago that he should either crap or get off the pot, either face up to the issues and be serious or get out. His campaign is nothing but an insult to the American people and Sarah Palin a bad joke. All else having backfired and failed they have now turned to robocalls that are so scurrilous and below-the-belt they give a new meaning to slime. What is worse, this sliming of Obama will carry over into his Presidency, making his job just that much more impossible. It is completely immoral as well as un-American. McCain/Palin are a disgrace to all Americans and should be treated accordingly. But at the moment Palin goes on babbling her lies and hatred and McCain remains more or less fixated on Ayers and anything other than the issues. McCain seemed almost pleasant last night at the annual Alfred E. Smith roast, and did, I thought, a nice routine, slightly better than Obama’s although he was very good also. But the McCain of this campaign is not pleasant, not at all, apparently his unbridled ambition to be President has turned him into a kind of roviating monster, willing to do or say anything to get elected, and seemingly comfortable in the slime that surrounds him. It is sad, even tragic, and too late in the game to do much about it. It won’t happen, of course, but McCain/Palin should probably just concede to spare themselves and the nation any further embarrassment.

Root Canal

It takes a lot of trust
to lie with your head
near the belly of a stranger,
cradled in his arms,
as his hands brush your lips to
perform a mysterious artistry in your mouth.
I never knew a root canal could be so intimate.

Linda Langness