When asked to expand on his comments about America being a nation of Whiners, former Senator and current McCain economic advisor Phil Gramm added, “And they’re also ugly.  Very, very ugly.”

Remember when you were, like, eight and you walked on a sidewalk and kept your eyes down on that sidewak to make sure that you did not step on a crack?

Well, in that same spirit, as pointed out by the American Prospect magazine’s blog — appropriate title “Road Trip From Hell”, four College Republicans are engaged in a Summer road trip from coast to coast while remaining in Congressional districts which have voted a Republican to the House of Representatives.  I imagine they were inspired by the 2000 electoral map (and you don’t really see any difference with the 2004 map) which showed that the vast majority of empty space (“Flyover Country”) voted for Bush, and the vision that this represents the “Real America” of “Real Americans”.  I guess the two things to study are this map.:

And this route.  As you can see, their feat is impossible.  I think they absolutely had to step on a crack in Georgia.  They have been soiled by a Democratic Congress-critter.  It also appears that they did not take the “road less taken” in avoiding some Democratic district in Tennessee — tsk tsk.

Other than that — It’s clear and circuitously awkward sailing, down and up and around various circles on to a thin splice of the Pacific Ocean.  Given their track record so far, I believe they will end up in any number of more Democratic districts.  I suppose it will be interesting to see which way they go in the fork in the road in Kansas — whether they swoop north through Idaho and Wyoming or South through Arizona and New Mexico en route to Southern California.

#1: He talks a bit off the cuff when he thinks he is off mic.  He did in 1984 and he does in 2008.

#2: So do we all, I suppose, whether or not that includes making Jewish racial jokes or speaking about castrating people.

#3: If you had asked me before this incident what Jesse Jackson thought about Obama, I would have offered up a complicated picture full of jealousy and support.  Which is what his remarks suggest.

#4: If you had asked me before this incident what Jesse Jackson thought about Obama’s Father’s Day remarks, I would have said he didn’t like them and was “talking down” to black people.  Which is what his remarks suggest.

#5: If you had asked me what Jackson thought about Obama’s “Faith Based Initiative” proposal, and Bush’s, frankly I would have no idea.

#6:  Berkely Breathed once suggested that his “Bloom County” strip could not deserve the reprinting which Calvin and Hobbes just had because the strips would be stale as Hell.   I offer that thought up with regards to thinking about Jessee Jackson.  Today Breathed does something of a xerox copy of a xerox copy of his 1980s strip.

I just saw a banner ad to a John McCain website (video) that read (ahem), next to a bold forward gruff looking John McCain

“John McCain:  Ready on Day One”.

Hm.

During a lag time on public transit, I pulled out my notebook and listed the American presidents.  I missed one.  I knew I missed one, and had to think long and hard for the rest of my trip to figure out who I missed.

So, my question is: Who did I miss?  I dub him the most obscure president in American history, and I tend to think if I gave anyone this exercise he’s likely to be one of the most skipped over presidents.

Answer I will give sooner or later in the comments section, whether anyone cares or not.

Flag Pin.  Dot dot dot.  Flag Pin politics.

Just shoot me if I make this topic a habit, okay?

So I see Dearest Charles Krauthammer tredge past it in a list of Cynical Obama… what’s that common vernacular used today?… Political and Positioning Readjustments … And I am hit by the inanity of part of our political dialouge.

Long story short: Obama is now wearing flag pins.  After a period of time where he did not wear them.  He started wearing flag pins again after being pestered on the topic.  And mind you he started doing so in the primary season when, theoretically, he still had to court those quote-in-quote “moveon.com (or is it org?) crowd” of a-patriotic symbol smashing snubs.

There are a few ways of considering Obama’s flag pin arch.  One is that the passion which had aligned blustery nationalism and a blurry loyalty test in 65 to 80 plus Bush America has died down such that the flag’s meaning differs in 2008 from its meaning in 2002 – 2003.  Another is the “if it means that much to you” item which is akin to the deference of wearing a tie to one’s job interview — a pander of a type made by everyday citizens in everyday situations.  And the other item is the “Who gives a flying rip?”

Two studies have floated into my attention on the steady destruction of America. The annual poll account for the “Fourth of July” on how we suppose the Founding Fathers would look at America shows that upwards of 70 percent think they’d shake their heads furiously and arch their eyebrows. And, David Broder floated in his column an item I knew about years ago of a study of presidential Inaugural addresses showing that they used to be smart and are now dumb.

The first matter deserves a bit of a snarky: the founding fathers would wonder why the hell they have to answer to a slave, three quarters of a person, or a woman, isn’t their place in history designing American flags?, every so often in our daily lives. I almost want to suggest some truth to the Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure story that they would be amazed at the sight of, say, a water slide, but I think they can be acclimated to future doo-dads well enough to conceptualize our world relatively quickly.  (And actually a better and more literary reference for my cross time culture shock might come from … um… Mark Twain’s Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.)

That being said, the key of the poll is the comparison to the poll results for the year July 4, 2001, where a majority of Americans thought the Founding Fathers would view our America favorably. What happened in the meantime?

The latter study is interesting. But the deterioration is only problematic with concern with how it has played out from the advent of television onward. Which is to say the problem is that nineteenth century presidents were largely not talking to the “Common Clay” by means of mass communication, and is favorable from that stand-point — particularly up to that great flash point Broder points us to with Woodrow Wilson– in that it’s a sign of — to one degree — the democratizing of our politics.  That being said, yes, the pleas to “common sense” is troubling — always served as much a crutch to pass away differing opinions as anything else — but…

Well, I see that news that Bozo the Clown has passed away.

Bozo the Clown, also known as Jesse Helms.

Bozo.  Clown.  Jesse Helms.  the.

I’d be interested in a chart to see how many people logged in and made that somewhat rude joke.

With all due respect and apologies to Larry Harmon, of course.

I had half a thought that there had to be some reason John McCain was in Columbia, which is home to zero electoral votes and thus a very odd choice to campaign, and a little out of mind in the American consciousness to burnish foreign policy credentials — even if one is stumping for a Free Trade Agreement.  Things almost seem to align when American prisoners were rescued, but here again — that makes for roughly the lamest conspiracy theory ever (or perhaps lamest conspiracy) as it still doesn’t bring him any connection of Triumph.

I suppose one can settle into a back-room wheeling sans electoral politics, the Puppet Masters throwing the powerful out there and it doesn’t much matter — McCain remains the Manchurian Candidate or simply a Stump.

Strangely, the latest issue of one of the magazine news-weeklies, Time Newsweek USNewsandWorldReport, has a cover story with the provocative battle of “Lincoln Versus Darwin”.  This strikes me as a contrived battle — I don’t particularly see how Lincoln and Darwin or Lincolnism and Darwinism are mutually exclusive.

Other battles to take note of:  Comstock versus Edison.  Friedan versus Dewey.  Walker versus Trump.

I don’t quite know where these battles would take us and what criteria you would use to judge the victor, but there you go!