Friday, August 29, 2008

The Land of the Cretins; the Home of the Fey

I've refrained from writing about the current election, not because it isn't of interest, but because of a deep, underlying fear that I have about what is going to happen on November fourth (and it involves racism - see much later). This headline on Yahoo seems to epitomize the tendency of my country to rank high in the running for most idiotic of all time:
Analysis: Palin's age, inexperience rival Obama's
We can't, of course, argue about the age. Though this is such vital importance in the McCain/Palin ticket. I am not sure what odds Jimmy the Greek is giving in Vegas for McCain surviving even four years if he should happen to win (expect a senior moment on election night), but the contention that Palin's inexperience, which is as vast as the wilderness she oversees, is in someway comparable to that of Obama's is just so laughable as to bring tears to the palpebral fissures. Bitter tears, to be sure. But tears none the less.

Where does our media get its writers/reporters? The idea that a man as educated and experienced as Barack Obama is even on the same ballfield as this unknown entitiy from Alaska (the 21st Century Tammany Hall, so it seems) occurred to someone. So, there it appears on Yahoo. Starts a meme. Gets debated by the talking heads. Goes skyward. Sweet weeping Jesus on the cross, as Billmon quotes Pappy O'Daniel from "O Brother Where Art Thou?" whats this land come to.

But Obama is a black man. (Technically only half, but it shows you were we are with race that he is always considered black.) I can't finish this trace. I will have to return to it.

1 comment:

Felix Grant said...

Powerful post.

From my external viewpoint, the truly surprising (and, I have to say, hopeful) thing about Obama's success in getting selected as a candidate in a USA which has demonstrated such manic and irrational hatreds post September 11 is not the colour of his father but the (admittedly very tenuous) religion.

One thing which saddens me is the continual assumption that 45 is "young". Just as depressing as the fact that in most employments it would be seen as "old". Perhaps I shouldn't be saddened but amused ... it's two years older than JFK who is always so deified.