April 5, 2008
My previous identification of things that I do not like, and up to this point have chosen not to ridicule, must now be amended to include the newly popular Political Pointing.
For those of you who are occupied with things other than politics I will take a moment to explain this new aggravation. It will require some effort and sacrifice on your part; because you will probably have to watch a few TV shows, which you now avoid, in order to affirm the new level of my concern.
This is a non partisan effort on my part. So I will refer to the candidates as C, M and O. For the C part of the description I will refer to one of the Cs as M (Male)C and the other as FC.
First, what is Political Pointing? It is walking out on the stage with a big smile on your face as if you know every single person in the audience. This is true in New York City or Ames, Iowa. The candidate is grabbed and hugged (see prior message on this) and in the case of FC hugged and "air kissed" (also covered in prior message) by the senior politico in the area. After this, it is more essential hugging, kissing and even the now almost passe hand shake with the many supporters on the stage. With the preliminaries out of the way now is the time to really turn it on. The candidate turns a beaming face to the audience and quickly makes eye contact with anyone (in the case of MC it will probably be an attractive lady) in the screaming audience. Then, zing comes the Pointing accompanied with a little nod or wink and an even wider smile. The crowd goes wild. This goes on for about ten minutes. Point, nod, wink followed by the raised eyebrows of false recognition. And just in case the candidate misses anyone, the local senior guy is in the process of identifying others to receive this friendly salute. The recipient has now achieved fifteen minutes of fame. And so, of course, anyone within ten feet can also claim later that he/she was the intended celebrity to be so identified and presence acknowledged.
All candidates are guilty of this to varying degrees. The worst is MC followed by O, them comes M and finally FC. I think that FC is the least guilty only because Political Pointing while bipartisan, is still a macho trait although I have great confidence that FC will never let a male outdo her on anything.
I hope that by identifying this developing trait early on in the campaigns we can get some form of ground rules written before November. This must be stopped now!
I invite you join me by withholding all campaign contributions until commitments have been secured.
For those of you who choose not to join but anticipate attending one of the events, I suggest that if you are a woman you should bleach your hair blond. If a man, wear a red tie so that the candidate can pick you out quickly or can spot you next to the blond..