Blue Butter

We’ve heard time and again of how women influence elections.  Maybe so, but I’m going to throw something out there that may or may not be a thought to any other woman in the country.  Actually, I’m going to throw more than just one “something”. 

I watched the debate tonight that was held in Memphis between the two presidential candidates.  As usual, I found myself saying out loud, “What?! You big jackass - you don’t have me fooled” or “Give me a break - do you have to be so condescending?!”  Yeah, I know….the dogs were my only audience, but I still voiced it.  I’m going to make a broad statement and hopefully, I’m more right than wrong: I think as women, we want to know when these candidates walk out and shake hands, that’s it’s a sincere gesture.  Honestly, it makes me uncomfortable for them to verbally assault one another.  I know it’s politics and it’s part of the game and they signed on for it, but it bothers me that they can exchange poorly-hidden jibes back and forth and in the next breath, turn to the audience with a “Oh, I’m so glad you asked that, Matilda.”   They take every opportunity to martyr themselves, especially when schmoozing the moderator, in this case, Tom Brokaw.  Tom Brokaw reminds one of them of the two minute time limit, and lo and behold, the one who wasn’t chided jumps in and says, “You won’t have to remind me of the time limit” Sheesh!  It takes me back to the days of my sister and I kissing up to Mom and taking advantage of the fact one of us was in trouble by telling Mom, “That’s OK, Mom.  I wouldn’t forget to take the skillet off the stove and almost burn the house down.”  (By the way, that would’ve been me who nearly burned the house down, thank you very much and yes, baby sis played it to the hilt)

Why can’t we hear a sincere, “You know what?  My opponent is absolutely right.  I agree completely and to be honest, my response matches his verbatim.”  There’s nothing wrong with agreeing with a statement even if the democrat candidate said it or the republican candidate opened the door for further discussion.  I can’t imagine points dropping in any race because of a gracious statement along those lines.  Our faith is shot to hell anyway - let’s be honest.  They both are harping on what should be done and what they’re going to do.  I realize they are on very tight time constraints in the debate arena.  Why can’t we hear a “That’s a great question and I can tell you it can be done, but it’s going to be tough and we’re going to have to weather this for awhile.  And no one has the cure-all, but I can promise you we’ll find it.”  Guess what?  We’re not fooled.  We know there’s no easy answer and honestly, we even know that there simply may not be a solid “one size fits all” solution to the problems this country faces.  I can tell you with one hundred percent certainty that if my boss approached me with a huge quagmire that had no clear solution and told me to “find one anyway” and then come back to me the next day wanting to know if I’d found the answer, I would surely say, “Not yet.  I have some ideas that I’m working on, but it hasn’t come full circle yet.”  He’s either going to put me in the company dog house or he’s going to respect the fact that I owned up to it and didn’t sugarcoat it.  The last thing I’m going to do is eagerly agree and insist it was a piece of cake.  With my luck, that’s going to be followed up with, “Well let’s take a look.”  Yeah, that’s one bell you just can’t unring. 

And by the way, why are major corporations having to borrow money to make payroll?  I didn’t realize this was a common practice.  A comment was made that part of the solution was for feds to free up money to corporations so that loans could be made to make their payrolls.  Business 101 teaches us that’s a clear indication of an unsuccessful company.  And another thing - I learned tonight that AIG, after having been bailed out to some degree, went on a “junket spending spree” this week.  One candidate suggested an immediate full repayment to the treasury and the discharge of the head honchos.  I couldn’t agree more.  In fact, this post from several days ago was at the height of the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac admissions during AIG’s initial panic.

I can’t believe I’m even thinking this - but the only good thing I can pull from this election is the fact that we have less than a month to go.