Invoking Nickelback in the political debate

I was awakened this morning by what I think was the voice of a fireman on a fire truck. He was using his loudspeaker and a deep and burly voice to say "get off the phone!" to a driver who was practicing some civil disobedience by driving while talking on his/her cellie. I'm hoping to hear that same voice of reason command my neighbors to "pick up your dog's poo!" Or maybe tell me "stop watching TV and go play tennis!" This could be an invaluable motivational tool.

WARNING political viewpoints to follow, I won't be offended if you click the back button instead of reading on.

I was listening to the radio yesterday, and John McCain's life story was being retold with a tender piano accompaniment at the RNC. They put a cute little anecdote about both John and Cindy lying about their age when they met. They left out any part about Senator McCain already being married at that moment, I guess that wouldn't play well for the family-values party, but at least we're out of the airport bathrooms.

I'd like to reflect on Governor Palin and former Mayor Giuliani's mocking of Senator Obama's stint as a community organizer. Click here for Barack's timeline. In 1983 Obama was a full time organizer for City College in Harlem who mobilized student volunteers. 1985 was the year he began his three year stint as a grass-roots community organizer in Chicago. At the same time Ms. Palin was coming in second in a beauty pageant, and would then go on to an eerily Vice Presidential career where she would get paid to talk about hockey on TV, but that's not the point.

The point is after 1985 Senator Obama continued and elevated his distinguished career as a public servant (editing the Harvard Law Review, registering 150,000 voters, teaching constitutional law, being elected to the Illinois State Senate, passing legislation requiring interrogations be recorded, writing two books, and being elected to the U.S. Senate). Comparing Sarah Palin's penultimate job as mayor of a city of 9000 to Barack's post-Columbia pre-Harvard job is like Nickelback (sorry Canada) putting down Radiohead's Pablo Honey. It's nowhere near the whole picture.