Saturday, September 13, 2008

In search of elusive McCain bumper stickers

I've been in Chattanooga almost four days and I haven't seen a single bumper sticker or sign or T-shirt for Obama or McCain. Weird. Come to think of it, I haven't seen many bumper stickers for McCain in Wyoming the past months. Perhaps that will change now that McCain has drafted Superstar Supermom SuperGov Sarah Palin for the ticket.

My own unofficial survey of downtown Cheyenne has turned up more Obama bumper stickers that those for McCain. Last week in the state parking garage, I saw three Obama stickers and none for McCain. One of those Obama stickers was on my flex-fuel van. But there were two more!

I've seen a lot of worried faces on Democrats since McCain and Palin hooked up, and Palin began receiving tons of publicity. But take heart, fellow Dems, as Palin has received as many negatives as positives. On the airport shuttle, I met an ex-military man (21 years) named Todd who'd been in Alaska for eight years, most of the time in Wasillan outside Anchorage. He worked military security and knew the highway patrolman whom Palin fired (apparently with prejudice). His wife knew Palin and, he said, liked her policies but didn't like her personally. Todd and his hairstylist wife recently moved to Colorado. When Palin's name was announced, a woman told Todd's wife: "Look, she's got your hairstyle." Todd's wife said: "No, she's got mine."

In Chattanooga, I ran into an arts administrator from Oregon who lived in Alaska for a number of years. Palin tried to fire her husband, but her husband wasn't having any of it. Seems as if Palin's specialty if firing people. A good Republican. Instead of finding ways to keep good people and pay them good wages to look after affairs of state, she's more intent on saving money. Her aim is to keep expenses low in order to provide tax cuts, mainly for the wealthy, a strategy which takes up a huge section of the Republixcan Playbook. Bush did that on a grander scale. McCain wants to make those tax cuts permanent.

This is what happens when you elect government-hating people to run government. This is how you get dumbbells such as Brownie ("You're doing a heck of a job, Brownie") running major government agencies. Wonder who's minding the store during Hurricane Ike?

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