Marry in Haste, Repent In Leisure

No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people. 

Attributed to H.L. Mencken 

 When you were a teenager, did you ever just instantly, immediately, fall in love with someone? I did, several times. And I'll bet you did, too. 

That's what teenagers do. But if they are lucky, teenagers grow up to be adults, and they learn the folly of their ways. Puppy love has nothing to do with the real thing. Grown-ups know that, because they've learned it, the hard way. Just because a girl has a big chest, it doesn't mean she has a big heart. Just because a guy has beautiful eyes, it doesn't mean he has a beautiful soul. 

Many citizens of this great country of ours don't seem to get that, even though they are way past their teenage years. Like the bobby-soxers screaming for Frank Sinatra, or the saddle-shoed 1950's girls drooling over Elvis, or the beehive-haired, white-lipsticked "mod" girls of 1964 getting their knickers in a twist over The Beatles, many today have succumbed to what can only be called "Sarahmania." 

Who, exactly, is this Sarah Palin? I have no idea, and neither do you, and neither does John McCain.  It was reported that he met her once before he asked her to be his Vice President. I always liked McCain, but when I heard that, red flags went up in my head. What the hell was he thinking? Well, now I know what he was thinking, and so do you. He was going to steal some of the Hillary voters.

He was going to appeal to all those "soccer moms" (no, wait, now they're called "hockey moms") who do not like, and feel intimidated by, women who do not walk in lockstep with them--like the spouse of a certain Presidential candidate. Sarah Palin's message is that she represents America's "small-town values," and that resonates with so many in this country.

So many in this country extol our wonderful "small-town values." But let me tell you something. I lived in a "small town," a very small town, for many years, and their "values" are no different from any "values" you would find on Flatbush Avenue. Need proof? Sarah Palin's daughter, this teenager who was raised with all these "small-town values," finds herself pregnant.

Hmm. I judge not, lest I be judged. But I do resent Ms. Palin's subliminal message to all of us who live in urban areas: We are morally superior to you. Look in the mirror, baby! In the end, this election will turn on one thing: Voter turnout. If you believe in the future, then get your backside down to that polling place on Election Day, especially if you are a young person.

It's easy. It takes five minutes. Do you want this woman being hearbeat away from the Presidency? I'm sure she is a very fine lady, and all that, but I don't. I don't like a woman who poses over a picture of a dead moose she shot, blood dripping out of its head, with her little daughter at her side, staring at the gore. Maybe I'm too urban, and I don't understand the "beauty of the kill," but--Blecch! 

Give the moose a gun, and let him go mano-a-mano with Sarah. Then I might respect her!