Thursday, January 17, 2008

I'm Still For Fred

As with most of the very important things that I do in my life, I voted in my kitchen. That is the beauty of a mail in ballot. You can vote in the bedroom, the living room, in your car, wherever. Then you just pop it in the mail. No pressure, no hassle, no neighborhood authoritarian-for-a-day asking you to prove you are a citizen. Nice. Cook an omelet, check a box. I like it. You don't even need a stamp! The postage is prepaid.

How many people are going to be shocked when they get there and find this amazingly long list of names on the ballot. What is the point of that? Most of the people on there you have never heard of. Some you barely hear of, like Fred Thompson. He is totally in the running but rarely ever in the news and when he is they usually get it wrong.

He is called lazy. Well, in my opinion his is lazy like a blue tick hound. Yep, he will loll about when there is no real business to be done but bring on a rabbit and watch out. All this front end campaigning, despite the pretty photos and vapid diner conversations, is not real business. Nothing deep gets said. It is more like a hazing. Whoever survives the daily drudgery and can still smile passes some sort of stamina test. I guess this should make us confidant that if that person gets elected and finds themselves severely injured they will have the stamina to be brought out of the medically induced coma, a la President Palmer on the great show 24, in order to continue to assert their rabid desire for control. Not real comforting.

Fred, sees how silly this is. The other problem he has in getting noticed is that he does not utter pretty sound bytes. I loved Hillary's sound "bite" last week when she feebly illustrated how the issues are all interconnected by alluding to chips and guacamole, a subject I know quite a bit about. She was pathetically unable to pull the quote to its logical conclusion. Fred doesn't risk sounding lame. When you tell it like it is, in a confident, no-nonsense manner, let's face it-you are boring.
I love reading the Week. It compiles all the great news sources each week into convenient departments. It has a standard column-"Boring but Important." Fred's name could be there every week.

But he is not always boring. See his Youtube video response to Michael Moore's claim of medical system superiority in Cuba.

Now, I don't agree with Fred on everything; but maybe I do. Yes, he is pro-life but I think he is really saying what I think: the federal government simply has no business in this issue. That is followed logically by his conclusion that government money should not pay for abortions. These are totally consistent positions. If you want to make a personal decision, you should pay for it yourself-otherwise you are subject to the benefactor's opinion on the matter. I think Fred would go with that.
Same with marriage. Fred says it is between a man and a woman. Again, I think he would agree with me-it is certainly none of the federal government's business, especially federal judges who are not there to make law.

Maybe I am rationalizing, but on the rest of the stuff, I think Fred is the man.
Here is a wonderful analysis by another person who feels the same way. I am pretty sure there are more than two of us out there.http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0108/colon.php3

As it stands the field is wide open. That proves my theory that Fred is wisely conserving his resources for the right time and place. So grab your mail-in ballot, have a cup of tea and do a little research. I hope you come to the same conclusions as I do, but if not, I respect your right to choose.

Post script: as for stamina, Fred has a second, young family. Nothing takes more stamina than that. On that count and at his age he is clearly nuts. But that is none of the government's business either.

1 comment:

Patti Cake said...

I thought of you last night when I heard that he withdrew. I'm actually bummed myself because to be honest...the other prospects aren't all that great. Have a good weekend!