Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Hmmmmm?

Things I am perplexed by. 

1. There's another article in the Chicago Tribune yesterday again about Obama's inexperience and how it's causing his numbers to drop  in the polls. Regardless of where ever my vote goes, I was curious to see how different he might have been from other "youngish" presidents. (Dude still has 15 years on me, so I wouldn't consider him young.)

In 1992, the United States elected Bill Clinton to office. He was 46 years of age when he took over the oval office. He had a law degree from Yale and had served as a law professor at the University of Arkansas. Behind him were 12 years serving as the Arkansas State Governor and 2 years as the Arkansas Attorney General. He had no military experience and served 2 terms as the commander and chief of our armed forces. America enjoyed a very prosperous economic recovery and had a much friendlier image around the world. Midlife sexual crises and all...

Barack Obama just had his 47th birthday. He has a law degree from Harvard and a history of grassroots organizing to try and better the Chicago community while he taught law at the University of Chicago. He has no military experience. His political life includes serving 8 years as a state senator of Illinois and 4 years serving as a U.S. Senator.

I don't find these two really that different in their experience.

But putting them both to shame (IMO) was JFK. Granted JFK had connections neither of the above men had growing up, since he was from a political family. But for a man who died at 47 as president of the United States, he had 14 years of working as a congressman and a senator. He was a Navy officer and studied and held degrees in economics and business from Harvard, Stanford and the London School of Economics. But JFK was bred to be a mover and a shaker. 

I've seriously got to stop reading the news because I'm so sick of flipping politics, reporters and Washington. I had to do this in 2000 and 2004, too. Both of those elections made me lose my lunch a time or two.

2. Having a girl is easier than having a boy. See Freak on this one. Why can't we just see our kids as individuals while acknowledging that what estrogen and testosterone do to the bodies is different but doesn't make every girl this way or every boy that way?

3. That experiencing something new from a different place other than where you live immediately makes that thing less good. Like being from Wisconsin and saying Wisconsin cheese is better than French cheese, because it's from Wisconsin. Like your loyalty is what makes it better. Seriously, it's cheese. Can't people just have preferences without there being some kind of "superiority" complex to it? Better yet, can't we avoid assigning morality to choices. Like you're a bad person if you eat fast food?

4. Why did I waste all day yesterday reading a book and going to the Homer consignment shop for fall clothes for X rather than cleaning my house? 


6 comments:

Amy said...

re: #4 Because going shopping is fun especially when you're with a friend and your house mess will always be there waiting for you =)
It has a way of always coming back.

Quigs78 said...

re: #3 This is because I like Uno's more than Papa Del's, isn't it?

And I agree with Mommy Schiff - no one ever, on their death bed, says 'I wish I would've spent more time cleaning my house.'

SunnyD said...

Mommyshiff, I know, I know, I know. It's true. Especially since I went with Rogers. But I swear my house is so sandy/dirty right now that it smells. Oh wait, that could have been the poopy diaper I meant to put in the trash outside, but instead left in the kitchen garbage before the 2-hour bedtime issue last night.

Quigs -- LOL, I didn't even think about that. Mostly, I was visiting a lot of very whiny message boards. But re: Our pizza conversation, I guess it only counts if you think all things Chicago suburbs are superior to all things everywhere else in the world. :-P

Lavender Lemonade said...

Thanks for the comparison of Obama and Clinton's track record. It really does give some perspective. And wow, JFK's history rocks. I'm completely clueless on all things presidential. So feel free to provide as much commentary as you can tolerate to educate me. :)

Oh, leaving the house vs. cleaning the house...uh, no brainer. I'm outta' here.

libbygirl said...

Wanted to say thanks again for inviting my boys out the movies. I am catching up on everyone's blog as the baby is sleeping and, yes, my house is a mess too.

iamarogers said...

I might say that on my death bed. I will probably try to get up from my death bed because usually when a person is dying his/her house is out of order; and that is no way to die. Because that's who I am. A sick, sick woman. ;)

And I'm glad you and I went to Homer to the consignment shop. It was fun! :)