I try to be upbeat, honest, I do. I'm the one hammering away at my keyboard writing upbeat diaries to quell the hand wringing and "Oh my God we're gonna lose types" but dammit, I've had enough of stupid. For those of you that are not familiar with my writing, I'm a bartender in a red, red area of Florida...Here's my story for today below the fold...
I try to avoid politics at work as much as possible, my livelihood depends on it actually. Today I had a Father and Son duo come into my bar. They are infrequent visitors to my bar but I would classify them as "semi-regulars". We were discussing the Fannie and Freddie bailouts as well as Bear Stearns and they seemed to be reasonable enough human beings. It became apparent I was more "informed" than either of them although the son was fairly up on his politics. I mentioned Sarah Palin and her complete ignorance of what Fannie and Freddie's role were as evidenced by her assinine comments made the other day about the duo costing the American taxpayers so much money prior to the takeover.
The Son immediately got his hackles up and informed me that she is our best hope for having someone that understands the "common people". I asked him what that had to do with her being competent to be the leader of the free world? I explained her lack of education, lack of integrity, abuse of power etc. I was shocked when he went completely off the deep end defending her. He bobbed and weaved and explained she was "hot". I explained if "hotness" was a litmus test, why not Angelina Jolie for President? I'd much rather do her than Sarah Palin, and I'm a straight female. We sparred back and forth, I scored points with the fact that it was McCain's own financial advisor that CAUSED the entire mortgage fiasco, he was unaware of the fact and I could see it gave him pause. He waivered in his defense so I pushed onward.
I'm usually not combative at work but the guy was really working my nerves at this point. An Obama supporter came in and sat next to them. He sat silently while I pressed on, inside seething but outwardly smiling as always at work. We finally dropped Palin and moved onto McCain. I explained I couldn't possibly vote for someone with who had not a shred of Honor or Integrity. At that point the Dad and the Son went into the vapors. I told them lie by lie what McCain had said in his ads, as well as all of Palin's lies. Their answer? "They all lie". Yep, you got it , they all lie. I suppose that means that we should just accept amoral leaders time and time again because after all, they all lie. I asked him what Obama lied about and the only thing he could come up with was this gem: " He lied about taking public funding for his campaign"...I laughed while pouring him his next shot of cheap Canadian whiskey and told him..."So, the best lie you can come up with for my candidate is a lie that saved taxpayers 84 million?" I had to wait on a few other customers but when I came back to the pair they had obviously worked out their defense.
The son attacked with "I have an example of honor and integrity," I asked him what might that be and his reply...drum roll please...You guessed it...John McCain was a POW and he didn't take the easy way out when he could have left early. I could barely contain myself from laughing in his face. It was truly awful. I told him John McCain may have actually had some honor back then BUT, it had long since been sold out to the highest bidder. The Father then made the money quote which explains why the whole conversation took place...He asked me "So you would vote for some nappy headed community organizer instead of a war hero?" I answered unequivocally, "YES". I also explained that my children would be "nappy headed community organizer as my husband is black"...I think I lost two customers today..But hey, they did leave me a ten dollar tip...