Can We Just Stop Asking Her Questions?

Most of you know where I fall out in this year’s presidential campaign but I still am interested in a good solid, issues-driven campaign on both sides. To that effect I ask everybody, “Please stop asking Sarah Palin questions!!!”

She has no experience, even the staunchest of Republicans have to agree on that and the only reason she’s in this thing is that she believes in Jebus, Guns, and is, frankly, a woman.

All that aside, she just should stop answering questions because she comes off like a complete ditz. Case in point, last night’s interview with Charlie Gibson on ABC. When asking about her foreign policy experience (something by the way the VP’s office has gotten much more involved with in the past 20 years), Palin said she has not traveled abroad much -- to Mexico and Canada, and since she became governor, to Kuwait and Germany to visit troops. And she said she has not met with a foreign head of state, but dismissed that experience held by Obama and his running mate Joe Biden, and McCain.

"We've got to remember what the desire is in this nation at this time," she said. "It is for no more politics as usual," she said, "and somebody's big fat resume, maybe that shows decades and decades in that Washington establishment, where, yeah, they have had opportunity to meet heads of state." (her quote)

Um...Ms. Palin, the McCain campaign is on the phone and they want you to shut the hell up! Are you aware that you just described your running mate? John McCain has served in the US House and Senate since 1982. By my count that’s 26 years, or in your words “decades and decades in that Washington establishment...” perhaps you should just stick to giving advice on how to be a “hockey-mom” and the proper way to clean your semi-automatic assault, err hunting, rifle.

POTUS, Pets, and Passports

We should have seen this coming. Eight years ago when Bush and Gore were vying for the Presidency, we should have seen this coming. We should have known that every cravat of their lives and those of every other candidate in the future would be probe, prodded, licked, and sucked until a good story comes of it.

The latest comes as a report from the State Department yesterday that Barrak Obama’s passport file was “looked” at three different times by three different people over the last few months. The bulk of the story can be read in the Washington Post, and I really don’t want to delve into the facts too much, but rather I want to focus on what was gleaned from his records.

I don’t know what would be in my “passport file” other then the basics (name, address, dob, ssn, etc.) and the places I’ve traveled. I wonder if Senator Obama has been to the Bahamas or Fiji anytime recently, or if he took a quick jaunt up to Canada last summer to get some R&R?

Really I could care less! What I want to know is do Obama or McCain have pets? I exclude Hillary from this because we know about Socks the Cat (is he still alive?) and Bill’s dog, Buddy. But do Barak and John have pets? Are they pets that are representative of the leader of the free world? I wish somebody had asked this of Bush before the election in 2000.

Even though there are a good amount of Americans (a little over 50%) of them who think that Bush really didn’t win the election of 2000, I think that it wouldn’t have been as close as it was if voters knew and thought about Bush’s choice in pets. A small fu-fu dog (“dinner” as the Mooks likes to call them) is not a pet for a president who so closely resembles Yosemite Sam. Surely Karl Rove or another advisor would have seen this coming…Bush walking solemnly on the West Lawn of the White House with this small ball of hair in tow. I don’t want to go to the other end and say he should have a German Sheppard or a Pit Bull, but certainly a Retriever or Boxer or something would be better.

To close, if we are going to evaluate every word the candidates speak, analyze every person they’ve ever met at a cocktail party, and dig for every bit of dirt that might make a good headline and sell a few more papers, then we should also take the time to evaluate their pets and make sure they properly represent the good ole’ US of A.

Imus’ Return and Mea Culpa

On Friday I told you about my thoughts on the Great Don Imus’ return to radio. Well I’ve now heard the show (you can too at http://www.imusonair.com) and there were some good, some bad, and some that I don’t know what to think about.

The best part of the entire show was hearing the I-man’s voice again along with Charles McCord, “Fat” Rob Bartlet and the rest, not to mention the crowd enthusiastically cheering them on (it was held in Manhattan in front of a large live audience). It was also great to hear some of the familiar guests including Senator and Presidential Candidates John McCain and Chris Dodd, Presidential Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin (who on a personal note, is a sweet woman and of the speakers who I’ve enjoyed meeting on several occasions now), and even political strategists Mary Matlin and James Carvel.

On the downside was the conspicuous absence of any sound coming from Producer Bernard McGirk’s microphone. He was there at the studio location, his bald head gleaming under the lights. He just was so much quieter then usual. Some of this can be attributed to the fact that the show in it’s current “incarnation” is still new with 2 new cast members (both black…hummm…might we be pandering to our critics??) and he wanted to let all the new voices be heard. Or it may be attributed to his “enabling” of Imus’ throughout the years including the now infamous comments about the Rutgers team in April. McGuirk was the one who called them “rough looking hos” when Imus took that and added “nappy-headed” and got himself in hot water.

On to those things that I’m not so sure about. The new “theme song” is chief among my concerns. The old simple “Imus in the morning ” was a staple on my radio from the time I was 11 or 12 years old (some 19 years). The new jingle isn’t much different, “Imus. Imus in the Morning”, but is clearly not the same and it will take some time to get used to. Hopefully they’ll bring the duck back. I won my (very rare) Imus in the Morning ceramic Bobble head almost 20 years ago when I called in to the show to report that the duck hadn’t quacked. Truth be told I don’t remember how the duck got involved in the show. Anybody out there know about it?

Five minutes into the show he delivered his official mea culpa, sitting alone on the front of the stage on a stool with his microphone on a stand. He told the story of the night he was fired from CBS radio on his way to see the Rutgers team to apologize. It seemed genuine and contrite but he kept hammering home the fact that he realize what he did and it was “reprehensible” and his punishment was just. But the best part was at the end when he assured his audience that the content of the show wouldn’t change. “Dick Chaney is still a war criminal. Hillary Clinton is still Satan and I’m still Imus in the Morning! ”