Correctly Impolitic

There are a few things I am afraid I will never understand.  One of them is the economy.  Oh, I get how to spend money and how that helps to keep people employed.  At least I do recognize the importance of shopping.  But when I listened to Paulson, the Secretary of the Treasury, explain the new government reorganization and how much better it’s going to be for everyone.  Admittedly, my eyes glazed over and I had a hard time balancing on the treadmill.  I always try to digest important information while I’m exercising.  I was never one to believe that you had to wait two hours to digest your food before you went swimming.  No, I finished a meal and dove right into to any available water – my life was always sink or swim, never pause and reflect.  But that’s another blog.  This one is about not understanding certain things.

Anyway, I don’t get all the intricacies of how the Fed works, regulation of the stock market,  or — beyond the fact that people borrowed more than they could pay back, how the mortgage crisis happened.  But John McCain says he doesn’t get it either, so I guess it’s OK—although my ignorance will not impact on millions of lives and if he’s elected, his certainly could.

Here’s something else I don’t understand.  Over the past few years there have been thousands of reports of cell phones causing cancer because of the radiation levels.  I get how that could happen.  I believe cell phones can cause brain damage.  Maybe not from cancer but certainly they cause people to act in ridiculous ways.  It’s like a person puts a cell phone to their ear and their brains are immediately sucked out.  They go from perfectly normal to acting like the walking wounded.  They don’t watch when they cross a street, they don’t pay attention when they are driving a car, and they certainly are not courteous about using the phone and intruding on other peoples space and enjoyment, such as in the theater or a movie.   Why would you take your life in your hands (driving,crossing the street, chancing a punch in the nose), to talk to someone while you are doing something else.

And why did Hillary continue to tell her war time story of woe, even after the video tape of what actually happened on that tarmac in Tuzla, was revealed.  Now that was something I didn’t understand.  It was a nice tape.  Dave Vannote her fabulously talented Advance guy gets off, she gets off with Chelsea (who does not talk to the press), they meet and greet some lovely children and then some soldiers and walk with assorted diplomats, calmly to the car.  Here’s what I do understand from having been in on those international communication meetings, the White House never would have sent the First Lady to a location they thought would be life threatening—OK maybe the President would have sent Hillary, but certainly not Chelsea.  But why continue to tell tales long after the truth was revealed.  Surely her campaign people know that there are no local events anymore.  If she says something in Texas the people in Iowa will find out.

Clearly, the media want Hillary out of the race. But I don’t understand.  If the race continues they will have something to talk about—no matter how ludicrous or benign.  All this stuff about how she’s reeking havoc on the Party is nonsense. She is running a campaign.  She has a perfect right to go into every state and try to win delegates. Bill Clinton is right—people need to relax.  And by the way, lest we forget, the best way to keep her in the race as well as to insure a hefty female turnout is to try to tell her what to do.  She has said that she’s staying the course.  I’m not sure I understand why she would submit herself to the ongoing humiliation of the mistakes and losses, but I like the idea that the candidates are being tested and learning something everyday.

Here’s the last thing I don’t understand—at least for today.  Why wouldn’t the Obama staff ask the candidate if he could bowl.  Bowling is not easy.  There’s no reason to assume that everyone can do it.  Has this guy ever been to a bowling alley.  When we were kids we went bowling every weekend and I never bowled above a 150 but even when I was six I bowled more than 37.  Just roll the ball down the lane and you’re bound to get fifty.  When you have ten tries, it’s nearly impossible to score that low.  I mean it’s not Kerry wind surfing, or Dukakis in a helmet, but it was Allentown Pa. where people are serious about competitive bowling.  So I absolutely can’t understand what they were thinking.   Wait, I get it—it’s the whole “he’s charming even in defeat” approach.  Maybe it will work—but I still think I would understand better if he only played three rounds.