I had to smile....
I was walking past my neighborhood Safeway this morning when I saw this poster:
"Take Your Country Back -
and eat great Thai food!
Dean for President 2004"
The poster was for an informal meetup at the local Thai restaurant....and it got me thinking....
so...with a grin and a grain of salt...let me add this as fodder in my ongoing debate with the Dean campaign....
Thai food is brilliant! I may actually go to this meetup...because I've got a serious hankering for some pad thai...
but, let me use this as a moment to say...um...timeout:
As cool and funny as this poster is, isn't it also a metaphor for something?
Safeway...even this one right next to the Cal Berkeley campus...sells enormous amounts of middle American, middle of the road, discounted, corporate food...to thousands of just folks every day. It's parent company is the subject of a strike in Southern California...Gep, I think, walked the picket line with them a few weeks ago. Interestingly enough, that whole labor battle has been precipitated by the arrival of Wal-Marts in SoCal.
My point, however, it that as long as Howard Dean's campaign, it's energy, it's money, it's personnel is coming out of the....
bullpen of the "Thai food" lovers, myself among them. And that bullpen is driven by the power of politics as a "moral stand"...as I argued in my last diary, (which I would beg you to read since it dissappeared in 5 minutes)...The Politics of Purity we will see a split between Howard's righteous campaign to take Washington back and the thousands of "just folks" Americans who drive in and out of the Safeways and WalMarts of America purchasing enormous quantities of, well, just about everything, and whose votes we NEED.
Let me be straight up, I think the Thai food thing is one of the more brilliant things I've seen...it's FUNNY. But it highlights the fact that discussions like the very worthy one last night under the heading Nascar Dad are only just beginning....
I, for one, am just not persuaded that the Dean campaign can break out of it's close association with, um, we Thai food lovin' liberal elites...
in fact, I get bummed out daily reading the utter confidence and certainty of so many Deanies on dKos...it's like Howard can do no wrong...and every other Democrat running is a bankrupt fool...
but despite the fact that I am currently a Gep supporter, and might be seen as an interloper...I am really tempted by this meetup...I do love pad thai!!
If you'd like to comment...please feel free to add your suggestions for other posters...
here's mine...
Hungry for Change in America?
Join Us for a Hungry Man dinner
in support of Dick Gephardt-
made with real Gravy-dessert included!