Rhubarb Ruminations: Episode 21

Twenty one is a good number. If you play Blackjack, it is a winner. So with that in mind, let’s just assume that today’s episode of the Ruminations is a sure-fire winner. At least that’s my story, and I am sticking with it.

I had thought that today’s episode would be a video release party of sorts. Well, once again I was sadly mistaken. So here's the deal: the official start to the video blogging begins on September 1. Period. Quote me on it.  

In the meantime, there are probably no fewer than 21 reasons to ignore the Iowa straw poll. There might be even more – who knows? When the theme of the Ruminations is something along the lines of “truth is stranger than fiction”, well, it became readily apparent in Ames. Michele Bachmann? Ah yes, it is time for more Rhubarb.

1. With Ames distinctly in your rear view mirror, how can we not mention the biggest candidate who didn’t grace the straw of Ames? Texas Governor Rick Perry is now in the running for the Republican Presidential nomination.

Why would you want to move to Washington when the Texas State Capitol is bigger than Washington’s anyways? Many of us in Texas would be more than happy for the Governor to leave our fair city. Just watch the national media go nuts when they really start digging into his “record” in Texas politics. Let’s just say it will get interesting, to say the least. It is not all peaches and cream in the great state of Texas like his ads suggest.

2. Before I truly leave the Straw Poll alone, here’s a thought. Now you can go ahead and make your beefs against the whole “Hope-Change” thing that the President has been riding for 3+ years now. Bush left him with a mess, but the President himself accepts accountability for it. Good on ya. But every major bill – from health care reform to raising the debt ceiling – has been at the mercy of the Republican and Tea Party Tantrums. “No Compromises” appears to now be the new battle hymn of the Republican Party.

So while you’re pondering the status of the country right now, I ask a serious question. No, seriously. Do you truly think that a Michele Bachmann or a Sarah Palin or a Howard Cain or a Ron Paul can, seriously, run the country? And if so, do you really, truly, think they can do a better job than President Obama? If the country is polarized now, does it stand a chance of getting any better under a “No Compromises” theme?

This free-thinking person simply believes that it is really ok that the leader of the free world could actually be smarter than myself or most Americans. Or smarter than the average bear, even. Democrat or Republican.

Don’t worry, if the answers to these questions become tenuous, we could all move to Canada. Hey, the ‘60s had the draft dodgers – I wonder what we would call the mass exodus of 2012?

3. The debt-ceiling-no-compromise-downgrade-our-credit fiasco is exactly that – a fiasco. Better yet, a debacle. Children with temper tantrums were playing with fire globally, and guess who got burned? The average American. I would like to thank them all personally for all the great procrastination and inability to work together until we were already up a creek without an S&P paddle.

Maybe if legislators weren’t living off the campaign contributions of Big Tobacco and Big Medicine and Big Pharma (those that were least affected by a downgrade), then they might have had a true desire to work for their constituents and to work for their pay. They have, as a group, done their constituents a huge disservice.

Frankly, all of this is starting to concern me. The average American is growing desperate – for a sign that the American dream is still possible. Becoming a more polarized nation has never been the solution, especially when people feel that times are tough. We’ve seen this many times before in the annals of history, and it has never had a good ending.

Photo credits: Caro’s Lines