The Endless Comedy that is Politics

Throughout the life of man, the area of politics has been a source of comedy. I am sure that Plato and Sophocles and whoever else passed for ancient Greece's David Letterman or John Stewart were making all kinds of biting and scathing jokes about the local government. Even during times when making jokes about the government got you a first-class ticket to be tied to a very hot stake, there were still people making funnies about king and country.

So, I am not here to say that, somehow, this day and age has reached some kind of "Golden Age" of political commentary. For all I know the days of Calvin Coolidge would have been far more hilarious had there been blogging back then. But I have to feel that even those from the times of ancient Greece might take a look at this 2008 election, step back, cock their head like Keanu Reeves and utter his ubiquitous line, "Whoa!"

For me, the most recent bit of comedy came about just this past weekend. The first was when our current president, George W "I'm always smirking cuz I don't understand what's happening" Bush, was sitting around a conference table somewhere in Texas discussing about what had happened during the landfall of hurricane Gustav. The very first thing out of his mouth was, "this has been much better organized than with Katrina."

I laughed out loud. Of COURSE there was better organization than with hurricane Katrina. That's because when Katrina hit there was NO organization. Therefore ANY organization of any kind during Gustav would be BETTER than what happened during Katrina. Had the state of Louisiana and the federal government organized a single bus out of the city of New Orleans even THAT would have to be considered better organization that hurricane Katrina. When you set the bar so low that it actually goes below ground level, ANYTHING above that is classified as "better." I can't help but think that last sentence sums up the entire Dubya presidency.

The second bit centered around Sarah Palin, the Republican choice for the VP running mate position next to John McCain. There was the announcement that her 17-year-old daughter was pregnant. This was immediately followed by the news that she would marry the father and would not even consider an abortion. Apparently there were rumors circulating that Sarah's youngest child, who has down syndrome, was actually her daughter's. I missed this rumor and want to know how to jump on that particular mill so I don't miss them in the future.

What struck me as funny was not the girl getting pregnant. That happens all the time and it is always stressful for the pregnant girl and the family. The odds against this particular marriage and family is, sadly, very low as far as success. No, what struck me funny was how every single Republican mouthpiece was walking around saying, "I would hope the press would give the family some time alone and that this wouldn't become part of politics."

All I could think was that if things had been reversed and either one of Barrack's children, were they older, making this announcement or one of Biden's grandchildren or children, that the Republicans would have it immediately in one of their commercials. Rush Limbaugh and Anne Coulter would be bending over backwards to the point of serious injury talking and mocking the family of the Democratic nominee and discussing about how such a thing happening shows bad parenting and problems managing things within the various families, which is evidence that the nominee should not govern.

You know that would happen. Even you Republican types have to admit that, had things been reversed, it would go down like that. These are the same people who managed to take a war hero like John Kerry and portray that negatively while all but welding a halo the head of John McCain who, when last I checked, was in the same war!

Of course, the choice of Palin as Vice President is also cause for comedy. After spending months pounding on the idea that Obama has no experience to be president, the go and pick someone with even less experience. Immediately the Republicans start trying to say that somehow running Alaska gives her much more experience than being a senator from Illinois. I mean, come on, there are about four people living in that state along with 5,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 mosquitoes. How on earth would even running that state for twenty years give you ANY qualifications for running an entire country. I mean, I could set up a spot in the woods and run it for a few years and still have the same basic experience as the person running the state of Alaska, I feel.

It always amuses me when conservatives condemn something until it suddenly lands in their own lap. Sure, gays and homosexuals are evil, evil, evil and they should be in chains and they should not be allowed to marry and they should be yelled at and closeted as much as possible until Dick Cheney's daughter comes out as a lesbian. Oh, well, then maybe they aren't SO bad, but they still shouldn't marry.

I have seen this within my own family! I grew up in a family of mostly conservative Catholics. Everything is bad when you are raised around that. Masturbation is evil. Dating someone without the intent of marrying gets you a strange sideways glance. No one ever even talks about the idea of people having sex before marriage. Then, suddenly, someone somewhere makes a mistake and suddenly all of the above are OK and God is very forgiving, so the rest of us should be too.

In case you couldn't tell, I am not a conservative. I generally believe in a free country everyone should be allowed to do whatever they want as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else and I can't see how anyone gay marrying someone else who is gay hurts anyone. I still contend if your marriage is in trouble because two dudes got hitched, you have bigger problems you need to be focusing on right at home.

At the same time, I do know that liberals tend to get a little too caught up in their own candidates. I recall having the same feeling about Bill Clinton that I do about Barrack Obama. I have this feeling that Democrats are deifying him a bit too early. There was all this talk about Clinton getting into office and how that his doing so would cause the sun to come out and rainbows to appear.

These days, you would think every time Obama passes wind, the rainbows shoot straight out of his bum. You would think that if he were to blow his nose and rub it on an open wound, it would heal immediately. Yes, it is historic, his nomination, and I intend to support the guy, but let's not forget the man is, well, a man.

What that means is that, no matter who ends up in office, the comedy is likely to continue unabated.