I saw a Mitt Romney commercial where Obama is castigated for being a liar. The spot includes Hillary Clinton saying, “Shame on you Barack Obama!” Bear in mind, this quote is from the contentious 2008 primaries and I simply can’t imagine what will be culled from the Republican debates as the other candidates called Mitt Romney…
Author: gary1164
I'm an advertising executive and former actor/producer
Here in our little village of Anatevka
Every year I am delighted to be asked to emcee our annual Sturgis Falls Days parade. It’s essentially our local founder’s day event and every year the Black Hawk County Republicans have a float, and the Democrats, as well, and every year there are several candidates from both parties running for office who work the…
Malcolm in the Middle
I grew up in the middle of America, in the middle of the middle class and was weaned on the middle of political ideology. I was given a perspective that lends itself to making reasonable observations and, perhaps, less myopic than a scientific approach might require. I relate to Malcolm Gladwell, the journalist who wrote the books, The Tipping…
Tree Huggers, Tea Baggers, and Baby Seals
I don’t like extremism. I’m not so far left that I can’t recognize left wing extremism and I will acknowledge that sometimes I cringe at their antics. I have remarked, “You know you might be taken more seriously if you weren’t in a thong while protesting the chemical plant.” Usually, the left stages dramatic support…
Fairy Dust
I’ve been watching politics for several decades and there are trends I have noticed that stay pretty consistent. When George Bush Sr. was campaigning against Michael Dukakis I heard my father coin the term “Political Fairy Dust.” It was his dismissal of a strategy that he noticed every election cycle; Republicans always promise “lower taxes,”…
Wasted, Exhausted, and Murderous
The Mosque of Zero
This weekend I was in a conversation with a politically conservative friend and we discussed the former controversy surrounding the Islamic Cultural Center built in the area of Ground Zero. Even though the controversy more or less subsided after it opened last September to very little protest and many conservatives have submitted that it was…
Tea For Too (sic)
I keep thinking that I should be able to put the Tea Party to bed. For some reason, I get it in my head, from time to time, that the fever pitch of tea bagging is over and that history has already recorded it as a temporary, reactionary, populist wannabe movement from a frightened fringe. …
Bruce Braley for Congress!
We have a very important race for Congress here in eastern Iowa. Congressman Bruce Braley will be challenged in District 1 by the Republican nominee Ben Lange, who barely lost to Braley in 2010. Lange benefitted from 1 million dollars from the American Future Fund to invest in negative advertising. Let me be perfectly clear: Bruce Braley has been a shining light…
Trayvon was my son, too.
I’ve been staying away from writing about the controversy surrounding Trayvon Martin because I wanted to hear all of the facts first, but today I realized that any new information that may come out is irrelevant to how I feel about this tragedy. There is a serious illness in our society that is growing more…