In the 1993 classic Western 'Tombstone' starring Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer and Sam Elliot there is a famous scene showing a not yet so famous actor, Billy Bob Thornton dealing the card game Faro. Thornton's character, Johnny Tyler is bullying the other players and is angry that they are taking so long in playing their cards. He violently slaps at the hands of one of the players and exclaims, "Christ almighty, it's like I'm sittin' here playing cards with my brother's kids or somethin'… you nerve-wracking sons-of-bitches."

In watching the 2008 Presidential election campaigns along with the way our juvenile "Rah Rah" media covers it, I know exactly what old Johnny Tyler meant. I feel like the lone adult at the high stakes Five Card Stud Poker table trying to win enough money to pay for my next tank of gas but I am stuck playing with a bunch of three-year-old candidates who don't even yet know how to play Go Fish. And the most galling thing about this whole sophomoric fiasco is that the media and the candidates treat us like we voters are the ones who are childlike!

During the primaries, especially within the Democratic Party between Hillary and Obama, we American voters were bombarded daily with asinine, silly squabbles that would make a bunch of pre-schoolers ashamed of their infantile behavior. Hillary made up war stories, talked about imaginary 3 AM phone calls, played the gender card and complained that Obama and the media were not playing fair. While the last may have been true it sure didn't do her any good to whine about it did it. To make matters even more bizarre her ex-President husband, who is supposedly an experienced, hardened politician who knows 'how to play the game', stepped in to defend his wife. But he only ended up looking more like the big brother facing off with the bully who's picking on a younger sibling than the savvy political in-fighter that won two elections to our Nation's highest office. This only helped to illustrate just how easily everyone involved can start acting infantile once a few others get that regressive ball rolling.

In the meantime out of Obama's playhouse dances a trio of crazies that for months gave this new kid on the block a free pass on not having to discuss any and all of the true issues facing our country so that all he had to do was mutter, "Change" over and over. And no matter how much they deny, deny, deny it, the mainstream media helped these crazies to help little Barry get away with it all. Besides little Barry's playmates of a sleazy, felonious Rezko and the bombing, anarchist traitor Ayers, we see and hear videos of his pastor of twenty years screaming, "Goddamn America" and so on. But little Barry smiled and swore that he never in his entire life heard such terrible things in his 'Christian' church. He swears that he hardly even knows Rezko and that, well golly gee whiz, he was only nine years old when his buddy Ayers was blowing up the Pentagon! Barack Obama is the Eddie Haskell of the 21st Century. He plays nice and proper before the cameras but hangs out with the most undesirable, despicable bunch of anti-social, anti-American juvenile delinquents this side of 'A Clockwork Orange.' With the media's help little Barry gets away with it as they just magically make it all go away.

Barry and the media want us to believe that little Barry's mentor, the preacher who married little Barry to little Michelle and then baptized their two children is not an American hating racist. Little Barry and the media tell us all sitting in our rapidly depreciating homes:

"Hey, don't you worry about none of this! It don't mean nothin'! Little Barry never even heard dear old 'Uncle' Reverend Wright say anything like what you saw and heard on those silly old videos with your very own eyes and ears. So all of you just run along like good little boys and girls. Forget those hateful rants. You may be white and you may be Americans but Uncle Wright wasn't talkin' about you! Forget the already federally convicted, Syrian born, felon, real estate agent that is tied to little Barry. Forget that little Barry's friend and associate used to bomb American institutions. Forget little Michelle, our future First Lady, was never proud of her country until just a few months ago. Forget that behind our backs and supposedly out of our hearing, what little Barry really thinks of us. Don't even try to remember that as he dined with the liberal fat cats he described you all as bitter, gun-toting, bible clutching paranoids who cling to your religion, a religion that he is supposed to share with you. Besides both Barry and Michelle have already explained that what they really said was not what they really said. They were just words. So children of America forget it all. It was all just a bad dream. Just run along now and go cast that vote like good little boys and girls for your new little friend Barry. And for selling out your country and convictions along with abandoning any semblance of intelligent thought, we'll give you all a nice little treat of tax cuts and full health care in fruity flavors on a stick." I do hope you all realize where they plan to put that stick.

During the entire primary campaigns instead of the candidates, along with most of the media, acting like adults and treating the American voters like adults by discussing the real issues, we were assaulted with nonessential immature nonsense. To our media it is more important to report how the interviewer treated the interviewed than what was asked of them or of what they answered. We should have been conducting in depth intelligent discussions concerning: our energy crisis, national security, illegal immigration, eliminating our national debt, our failing educational system, unemployment, a viable health care plan, and the war on terrorism, the candidates' tax plans, the mortgage crisis, or fixing social security, among a thousand other real issues. Missing throughout were the hard questions to the candidates. What is your stand on abortion, gay marriage, affirmative action and illegal immigration? Are you for or against securing our borders? What are you plans for our national defense and our Armed Forces? Are you for or against amnesty for illegal immigrants?

But apparently they believe all that is just too boring for our adolescent minds. So instead they wasted months of our time as they argued about who should take an imaginary 3 AM phone call? Who was more inexperienced? Why doesn't Obama wear a flag pin or say the Pledge Of Allegiance? What does the name Hussein mean? Is Michelle proud to be an American? Is this a race about race? Is Obama a Patriot? Is Wright an anti-American racist? Just what does a community organizer do anyway? Is McCain too old to be President? If you're a white American and you don't vote for Obama then aren't you a racist? Don't tell me I'm not patriotic! Why is there a Cuban flag in an Obama campaign headquarters? Is Obama a Muslim or a Christian? Where did that crazy priest come from and what does he have to do with anything that's going on? Just what is Black Separatism? Should all of the delegates be seated? Who is Che Guevara? I love my country! Did Hillary play the gender card! Did Obama play the race card! Was McCain really tortured as a POW? Hey! What about those 'little monkeys' playing in that tree? And how can we possibly forget how the American voters' intelligence was insulted by those silly arguments about words! Are they just words or are they just words? "Don't tell me that they are just words!" What was this, an election campaign or a class in philosophy?

In the meantime Americans watched and wondered just where did all of our mature adult leaders go? Try to imagine Truman, Ike, JFK or even Nixon acting like this.

As the national political conventions drew near this immature nonsense only increased with first to know text messages and giddy news channels' split screen videos of three vacant driveways of the potential Democratic Vice Presidential nominees. However, here I must admit that the videos of the three vacant driveways were much more entertaining and informative than Michael Moore's last three documentaries.

We voters were told that McCain is too old to be President but were not told that Obama's VP Biden is only six years younger than McCain. That's not exactly a national secret, yet no news media has yet to point it out. Besides it was way more important to tell us all about how many homes the McCain's own and how the old man was an elitist because he didn't know. No one noted the hypocrisy and irony of the party who's candidate has basically described Americans as gun owning, paranoid, jobless, bible clutching, religious hicks but who is now calling the other guy an elitist. This multiple house based elitist theme was continued all through the Dems' convention along with, "McCain is just another four years like the last eight" theme, thus adding two more chapters to the political bible, 'Wag The Dog.'

The Dems entertained American voters with a tribute to Ted Kennedy, followed with speeches by Michelle, Hillary, Bill, Kerry and Biden, all at the convention center. They all talked about party unity, family, how old McCain was, that it was time for, again, 'Change', how much McCain was just like Bush, how they love America, and how many houses that old man owns. They then dazzled the childlike voters of America by moving Obama's speech to Mile High for a rock star atmosphere complete with 70,000 plus cheering fans, Greek columns and fireworks. Obama gave a speech but what he said doesn't matter for he is not so much a candidate for President as he is a rock star who can't sing. That alone does not make him unusual.

What was never brought to anyone's attention during this convention was the plain and simple fact that for more than a year of Obama promising his followers 'Change', with his very first important political decision he gave them anything but this promised 'Change.' His promised 'Change' was from the old ways of Washington D.C., from the old politics, the old way of doing things. But then with his very first important decision in making that 'Change' he knighted as his VP one of the old men of that old Washington who has been solidly entrenched in the old ways of doing things for almost forty years. That isn't much of a 'Change.'

Now the media diverted our collective attention as they anxiously waited to announce that big Democratic bounce in the polls, which historically follows a convention. But McCain stole the thunder when that savvy old Navy pilot flew in under the radar with his VP nominee.

Good bye Democratic bounce. Hellooo Sarah Palin!

McCain choosing Governor Palin was, and remains, a stroke of genius. Of course we will not get the Democrats or the media to admit such. Instead what we did get from them was a display of such moronic, juvenile behavior the likes of which may never be seen again in a national election campaign. In other words they were hot! One minute Obama and his minions are basking in the afterglow of their love fest, rock star convention. They think that they are cruising on in to the White House unabated by that old man and whatever other old man he picks as his VP. With two months still to go Obama was already working on his inauguration speech and Michelle was picking out China patterns. Suddenly that is now all on hold. It's a new game with a new player at the table and she knows when to hold 'em and she knows when to fold 'em. Old John did it without text messages or split screen multi-media coverage. He did it the old fashioned way, just like an adult.

As soon as the Palin choice for VP was announced the surprised and shocked media, along with the Obama campaign, viciously attacked. You could almost see them jumping up and down as they threw their little tantrums and screamed, "Foul!" I can only imagine that the media and Dems were upset because they had wasted a lot of time and effort in preparing their hatchet jobs on people like Lieberman or Romney and now they had to do it all again for Palin. Only this time it wasn't just childish squabbling as they resorted to cruel juvenile slander. Of course just like any misbehaving brat who gets caught doing something wrong the media and Dems blamed most of this childish slander on Leftist bloggers. While some of this may be true it does not excuse the fact that the media and Obama campaign ran with whatever was implied against Gov. Palin and her family.

Hypocrisy ran amok when first everyone asked Governor Who, from Where? As if suddenly Alaska was on some distant planet. McCain was accused of not 'vetting' Palin as he had only spoken to her twice. Oh my! The Dems and media seemed to completely forget that not very long ago the Presidential candidates did not even get to choose who was going to run as their VP because the parties made that decision, thus sometimes meeting their VP's for the first time after it was decided. Or that in 1992 Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton had only met Senator Al Gore once in his life and had only talked to him one more time by phone before choosing Gore as his VP.

After spending much of the Democratic Convention telling us all how much they valued family and family values Gov. Palin's family become the focal point of their attack. We were told that Palin's husband had gotten a DUI twenty-two odd years ago. I am not sure that by this enlightenment if they expected us all to form a lynch mob and go after this man? But most of us with cooler heads are a bit more concerned, and appalled, by Obama admitting that he had used drugs, including cocaine. I believe that would have also been about twenty-odd years ago. At least I hope it has been that long ago.

The media and the Dems then went after Palin's seventeen-year-old daughter saying that she, not Sarah, was really the mother of the Palins' baby boy with Downs Syndrome. No one brighter than a penlight questioned the fact that teenage women rarely give birth to children with DS while women over forty have a 1 in 100 chance and at forty-five it is 1 in 30. Gov. Palin is forty-four.

When it was announced that this was not a possibility because the daughter was in fact five months pregnant; the party that advocates sex education, including free distribution of condoms to second level and high school students attacked her for being a teenage mother. Sort of defies everything we know about liberalism doesn't it? This same party who is pushing same sex marriage and thus destroying the religious ideals of the sanctity of marriage also criticizes this seventeen year-old for having sex out of wedlock. Like that is something unheard of in this day and age, or any other for that matter, like say Obama's mother getting pregnant with him, unwed at seventeen. This party who wants us all to believe that they are the champions of a woman's right to choose to have an abortion or not to have one, then criticized Gov. Palin for choosing to have a baby with DS. It leaves one to question if the Democrats are truly advocates of abortion and a woman's right to choose, or are they simply seeking infanticide?

Among the many other attacks against Palin was her seeking the removal of a spouse-abusing cop who used his taser on his preteen stepson, which resulted in the firing of that cop's superintendent. By the way that cop is still on duty. God forbid that officer were to loose his job and not be able to confront citizens on a lonely, dark Alaskan highway. "But Officer I wasn't speeding..."    ZZZZZZZZZAAAP! 

Palin has been criticized for being in beauty pageants, where she was able to earn money for college. She has been criticized for attending more than one college and for graduating from Idaho! With the Democrats' run of their last three Presidential candidates from Harvard, Yale, Harvard, I guess only Ivy Leaguers are supposed to get that job now. Apparently Idaho University and all of our other colleges and universities are just second rate prep schools for the Big Two. To the elite of the Democratic Party Sarah Palin is a hick soccer mom from Wa-silly, a pronunciation used repeatedly by Obama. Now please explain to me again on how to spot an elitist? All I know is that it is nice to have two non-lawyers on the same ticket.

The party that ran Geraldine Ferraro, mother of three, for VP in 1984 then questioned whether a woman with children could handle this job? Or because of the children should Palin even run? Palin has been falsely accused of banning books at a library and at first accepting a federal proposal for "The Bridge To Nowhere" but then putting an end to it. In other words when the bridge was first purposed she liked the idea but then after finding out more about it she changed her mind. My Lord, imagine a politician, or a woman, changing their mind. In politics they call this flip-flopping, in womanhood they call it being a woman.

To top off this eccentric hypocrisy, Obama, running for President of the United States, has been criticized for his lack of experience by just about everyone including Hillary, proud new daddy John Edwards and Obama's own choice for VP, Joe Biden. But Obama now wants all of us Attention Deficit Disorder children to forget all that and believe that the Governor of our largest State lacks the experience to be the Vice President? He insists that his being a community organizer gave him more experience for President than being the mayor of a small town gives Palin for VP. To plant another boogie man in our closets the media and Dems also keep telling us that Old John is so old that there is no doubt in their minds that he will kick the bucket in the next four years leaving this inexperienced woman straight out of Hicksville in total charge. But that doesn't scare this little duffer. What makes me wet my shorts is that Obama gets elected, something happens to him, Old Joe kicks the bucket and Pelosi from Loonyville is left in charge. That should give even Democrats nightmares.

Fellow voters, this rapid, rabid attack frenzy on the Palin family went on just during the four days scheduled for the GOP convention. But still everyday some new juvenile nonsense is forced fed to us by the media to take our attention away from what these candidates are supposed to be really discussing. When Sarah Palin made her VP acceptance speech she mentioned a joke about hockey moms, bit bulls and lipstick. One week later Obama stands before a crowd and refers to "lipstick on a pig." Little Barry, a.k.a. 21st Century Eddie, swears he didn't mean anything by it concerning Sarah Palin. But everyone in the world thinks he did. If he did then he was just doing what he has done since he started his campaign, courting controversy, wagging the dog to avoid discussing what really matters. But if he really did not intend to take a cut at Palin then boys and girls he is too stupid to be our next President. If Obama does not have the intelligence and aforethought to understand that his 'words' may be taken the wrong way before he shoots them off into space then we dare not set him down in a room with men like Ahmadinejad, Hugo Chávez or Putin. Obama could very well end up selling Alaska back to the Russkis and not even know it!

In the last month Russia has invaded Georgia and Putin has threatened the United States if we dare to interfere with anything they do. Russia and Venezuela are going to conduct combined war games in the Caribbean. The North Korean maniac midget may be dying and thus endangering our talks to stop their development of nuclear weapons. Iran is still Iran. The unemployment rate has gone up and the price of a barrel of oil has gone down. Congress has been back 'at work' for over a week and they still have not even taken a vote on it let alone started one new drilling rig, nuclear power plant or wind turbine. But all the media and the politicians are talking about is lipstick.

The rest of the world is conducting business as usual. We are trapped in a high stakes game that we just cannot afford to lose. We here in America better grow up real fast.

Semper Fi,
Mike

"Copyright 2008.  Michael E. Tank   All rights reserved. No part of this document may be copied, faxed, electronically transmitted, or in any other manner duplicated without express written permission of the author."