Lament of a Political Junkie

I have to admit that I am a political junkie.

Since today was President's Day (appropriate because it was neither George's nor Abe's birthday), I spent some time this afternoon and early evening watching and listening to Chris, Tucker and Keith (the MSNBC talking heads) ask Andrea, Howard and Pat (the MSNBC guest pundits) who's ahead in the Democratic horse race and why.

Turns out that some of the talking heads and pundits firmly believe that Hillary may actually be catching up or pulling ahead in the polls in Wisconsin and not falling behind in the polls in Texas. The reason -- some journalist discovered that Barack actually borrowed some lines from a stump speech given a couple of years ago by his friend, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick. Ironically, the lifted lines were actually quotes from political speeches given by JFK, FDR and MLK. Another journalist observed that Hillary has been known to borrow lines from the stump speeches of her friend, former US President Bill Clinton, when he was actually quoting from the Old Testament Book of Isaiah. I guess the moral here is if you are going to get caught stealing some else's words, it is better to be stealing from the Bible than from some of the better orators of our time.

It doesn't really matter anyway because some of the other talking heads and pundits that pass for political experts on television actually believe that Barack is not falling behind in Wisconsin and actually may be catching up in Texas because Hillary's friend Bill is getting grumpy again on the campaign trail -- especially when his Presidential legacy is challenged. The great debate of the day seems to be whether Bill is hurting or helping Hillary when he gets testy. He was up to handling world leaders the likes of Arafat, Gaddafi and Kim Jong-il but apparently cannot tolerate hecklers who would be no match for most run-of-the-mill standup comedians.

Thank God the television analysts are focusing their attention on the more high-level and important aspects of the political debate. Heaven forbid that they might actually provide some insight into the deadly serious issues which should be the topic of the discussion. That would take away time otherwise devoted to criticizing Congress for paying too much attention to the cause of the abscess on Roger Clemens' buttock.

The parliamentary elections in Pakistan were today. I only mention it because I had an opportunity a little over a year ago to spend an entire day visiting with former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto -- a most impressive woman. I came away from those conversations with an appreciation for how much more educated she was regarding our country, people and culture than our leaders seem to be about hers. Ironically, when I asked, she expressed almost no concern for her own safety and the danger she would be facing if she succeeded in returning to her home. Instead, she was completely focused on bringing democracy back to Pakistan.

Mrs. Bhutto was so much more literate regarding the character of our experiment in democracy than the majority of our own citizens. She would appreciate and understand the serious nature of our political process to select a new leader. She would understand it is about so much more than whether Barack Obama appreciates and borrows rhetoric from other political figures or whether Hillary Clinton's spouse can or cannot handle a heckler with class.

Oh well, onward we march to Wisconsin. I am pulling for Barack at this point. If you are going to plagiarize, it is hard to improve on "I have a dream today" or "Ask not what your country can do for you ..." I am thinking some future leader may be borrowing words from him.