Commentary by Adam Smith

The North Jefferson News



There are two dates that I am most looking forward to this year — Oct. 8 and Nov. 5.

Why those dates? Because by then, we’ll know who our new leaders are, locally and nationally.

I’ve got the political blues. Sing along in the key of E:

“Oh Lord, I’ve got the blues.

I’ve got them doggone political blues …

(Pause for harmonica break)

“They say that it’s news, but I’d sure like to lose,

Them ol’ doggone political blues.”

That’s all of the song I’ve got written so far, but i’m sure it will be a smash.

It’s times like this that make me question how the network talking heads on CNN, Fox News or MSNBC wake themselves from a hard sleep, slap on a tie and head to the studio to talk ad nauseum about Barack Obama and John McCain.

I’m probably getting as sick of hearing it as they are of talking about it.

However, John McCain threw the networks a bone a couple of weeks ago when he selected a virtually unknown first-term governor, Sarah Palin of Alaska, as his running mate.

Now, it’s Sarah Palin this, Sarah Palin that.

Out of incredible curiosity, I watched her speak at the Republican National Convention last week and found her to be an incredibly gifted speaker in the vein of say, one Barack Obama?

That’s not meant to be offensive. Love him or hate him, no one can dispute that Obama is a heck of a speech-maker. The same could be said for Palin.

And she’s a hot soccer, I mean, hockey mom who likes having her picture taken with guns. Very Rambo.

The Republican convention as a whole was a hoot, or at least the parts I saw.

On the night McCain himself spoke, I counted no less than 347 uses of the word “maverick,” and even saw it misspelled once on a sign that some delegate had perched over his head.

In a moment of odd brilliance, a television engineer just happened to go to the camera that was fixed on the sign that read, “Mavrick, John McCain” just as McCain was speaking about the importance of literacy in the United States.

The Democratic convention was no less ridiculous, with Obama giving a speech in front of 80,000 or 90,000 lefties at Mile High Stadium in Denver. The crowd was more akin to something you’d see at a Led Zeppelin concert. Maybe that’s how they got so many people in the stadium to begin with.

“What’s up with the skinny black dude on stage standing in front of the Greek-looking architecture? Why does he keep asking us for change? He must be unemployed. Where’s Zep? What? There’s no Led Zeppelin show? That’s it, I’m outta here!”

Either way, I’ll be happy when it’s all over. As expected, the political season I find fascinating and enthralling has grown as tiresome as the blues song I wrote about it.

May the best man win.