Speeches, Cigars, and Such
This week the County Commission met and, in what could only be described as an astounding act, they finished business and exited the building before eight o’clock. Those who have attended County meetings know that this is just short of a political miracle. Anyway, despite the shock of a $29 million dollar capital projects document from the Department of Education, the meeting was out early.
This allowed me to go home and watch what would become a four night political mini series courtesy of the Grand Old Party.
The ride was bumpy at times but there were some moments of genuine interest. And, I am not talking about Mrs. Trump’s speech. Though I listened to it, in its entirely, I must admit that I just don’t get the outcry. Yes, it was very similar in some parts to Mrs. Obama’s speech. Both, in my opinion, were borderline at best. One was delivered by a woman who has good command of the English language and one was almost painfully given by a woman struggling to make herself understood. My question is this. What reporter had enough time on his or her hands to immediately research the passages of the speech and why? In the total scheme of important issues, this does not even rank. What does, however is the reaction of the crowd to Chris Christie’s speech. I am not sure that I have ever witnessed a near mob scene at a Convention before but hey, this is 2016 and look around-all bets are off. I have to give it to Chris Christie, the man tapped into some serious anger both in and out of the room. That kind of anger takes years to ferment and, no matter how you feel about Christie or Trump or Republicans, emotion of that level must be acknowledged.
And then there was Cruz. During this whole political process, I have championed no one. All candidates from both parties have been on their worst behavior and, frankly, none have appeared to be the least bit presidential to me. In fact, sometimes I just have to turn the television off and do a political news shut down. But, I have to admit that this political season has been something like a train wreck-you don’t want to look but you just can’t turn away. I say this because I want to make the point that I was neither a supporter or detractor of Cruz before this week. Now, I can safely say that I would not vote for the man for the position of elephant waste shoveler. I don’t care that he and Trump were at war. There is nothing more pitiful or irritating than a poor loser. You simply do not come to another man’s party and pee in the punch. I feel sorry for his poor wife. She had to be escorted out of the convention center, and that was bad enough. Even worse, she actually has to live with the guy. Thankfully, there was Gingrich to put it all into perspective. Like him or hate him, and many do both, he likely saved Cruz from a really angry mob by giving them what they wanted-maybe not from who they wanted- but sometimes you have to take what you can get.
The rest of the show was just about what I expected, both the good and the bad. This week I will immerse myself in the Hillary Show and see what tidbits of truth I can garner there. I didn’t expect that there would be much to write home about until the news broke about more emails. Those darn emails just keep on coming. Anyway, Bernie or his followers may just make this one worth watching, too. After all, you never know what those crazy millennials will do.
Whatever we lacked in local fireworks this week, the National political scene is exploding. I don’t think that there has had this much glitz and glamour, shock and scandal since Marilyn Monroe sang Happy Birthday or Bill Clinton took up smoking cigars. Like a good old fashioned horror movie, it is fun to watch but I am not so sure how we are going to like the reality, whichever terrifying way it goes, come November.
