Good morning, y’all. I knew if we kept giving them chances that Channel 11 would eventually get it right, and they finally have. It snowed!! Not huge drifts that hide cars and children, but it did snow. We’re all still waiting for the “black ice” to start pouring from the skies, and I suspect we’ll have a long wait. Hopefully it will warm up while we’re waiting. It’s colder than a well diggers bottom outside today and I am thankful I’ve got inside work.
I’ve been catching up on the election returns from another small state, New Hampshire, while I tape off the areas I don’t want to get paint on tomorrow. There’s been marvelous advances in masking tape over the years. You’ve probably seen commercials where people paint stripes up and down and sideways on their walls by just using masking tape. Not me. I do not have the patience or the coordination to make ziggity zaggety designs on my walls. I find that the older I get, the less likely I am to venture into “new things”. I’ve also noticed that I become more frustrated and irritated when my ventures don’t turn out as planned. That’s one of the many reasons I wonder how in the world Bernie and his handlers think he’s going to make it into the White House.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I love everything he’s saying. He is “speaking truth to power”, as they say, and I’m proud of him for doing it. I just see that he’s got a snowball’s chance in Hell of pulling off a win in the general election, no matter who the Republican candidate turns out to be. I particularly love the fact that the young people are so energized for him, and are turning out in droves to support him. I just hope they turn out the same way for Hillary if Bernie doesn’t get the nod. I also hope that Bernie is not a part of some bizarro hipster movement that will turn it’s attention elsewhere when they get bored with the old guy. Young folks these days seem to have the attention span of an African Tsetse fly, so I will be surprised if they can maintain their interest until mid-November.
I am also reminded of another totally left candidate who played very well to the youth demographic, George McGovern. It was a very different time, one when the youth of our country were out marching in the streets every day to put an end to foreign excursions, civil rights, empowering women and other social issues. The presidential election of 1972, left the Democratic candidates George McGovern and Eugene Shriver crushed in a 61-percent to 37-percent defeat to Richard Nixon. The Electoral College total was 520 to 17, for Nixon. At the time, this was the second biggest landslide in American history. I’m not saying that I don’t think that Bernie won’t be “served by youth” as well, I’m just offering up a recollection from the past. After all, “those who don’t remember the past are doomed to repeat it”, as the saying goes.
So, as excited as I am to see the progressive ideas expostulated by Bernie take hold with the American people, I wonder when the realities of his age will catch up with him. At what point will some dip ask Bernie some dumb question, and Bernie lose it and go total octogenarian Rambo on them? I know it’s a possibility I deal with everyday, and Bernie’s got a few years on me. What if, and I’m out in the unicorns and rainbows area here, Bernie wins the election? We’ve all seen how the White House ages people. President Obama was a young looking, athletic man when he moved in. He is grey haired now. Even W, who rarely spent any time in Washington, aged dramatically after taking office. If a guy is 75 when he enters the White House, how long has he got? Hopefully, Martin O’Malley is available for backup to Bernie or Hillary. I wouldn’t be unhappy with O’Malley as president, even if he had to come in through the backdoor.
Congrats to Bernie, though. It gets a lot tougher from here on out.