One has their own private jet flying their entourage across the country.

The other lives an ordinary life.

Think about that: You can either be a Presidential candidate, or you can live an ordinary life.

Presidential candidates represent approximately one or two out of every 30,000,000 Americans. This means that statistically, they are one of the most exclusive groups of people on the planet – and this includes all the fringe folks, not just those with a real chance at victory.

To send our candidates into the sleazy bars and ask them to eat a crummy hot dog to prove solidarity with the people seems, well, absurd.

On the other hand, I think what would make being a candidate interesting is exactly that – seeing how everyone lives and experiencing things with an open mind.

In short, no Presidential candidate who’s halfway serious has any right to call himself one of us as he steps back into his private jet where his Duck l’Orange is waiting.

What I think is really bad about this process is all the lying that seems to be essential. I strongly suspect this is why Fred Thompson was so reluctant to enter the race and didn’t mind leaving it.

I’d like to see Obama not lie, and admit he’s a pointy-headed intellectual type. This would have the major advantage of being honest. He is a very smart man and that’s a qualification for being President. Being a smart liar might make us another Bill Clinton.

Of course on the Democratic side, then, there is a choice between a synthetic Bill Clinton and the real Bill Clinton’s wife!

I don’t think there will be any significant doubt that John McCain will be the most honest candidate, no matter which of these two win. If you want a more or less honest candidate, seems like you got just one choice.

I don’t love McCain, but he’s looking pretty good.

D

My swoon button is definitely off.

On a tangent here, but maybe someone who has read his book can help me out …

How did his African (paternal) grandmother “shape” his life? I didn’t think he lived in Africa, and I thought biological dad bailed fairly early in his life. Heck, I probably saw my one grandmother a bit more than he saw his … and I can’t think of too many ways she “shaped” me. And I’m a female.

This is just more of the creating a “narrative” stuff that the post modernists think makes one into a person who can “relate.”

Do people really believe this stuff?

I guess he is waiting for the Kenyan government to do its part for his grandmother, since it doesn’t appear he is spending any of their $4.24 million on helping the grandmother he honors so much on International Women’s Day. But he did donate a tax deductible $26,000 fto honor Rev. Wright’s ministry.

This tells me much about the man; more than enough to know that I don’t understand what is in his heart, much less his political views That is not the response of an average man toawards his grandmother who is living in poverity.

Really. In what way? I need specifics.

Forgive my cynicism, but I read this statement as Obama falling back on the color of his skin, even when he doesn’t believe in that as a common factor.