Joe the Plumber, the guy who is not a plumber, who is not buying his boss’s plumbing business, who does not make anywhere $250,000 a year, and who was a political plant designed to put Obama on the spot, was in the news today. He has a sideline – country music. It was announced that (1) he had endorsed John McPain, and (2) he has been signed to a deal with some Tennessee country music outfit. And the news guy says, “Is this a great country, or what?”
I would say, Or What. Promoters seize on media phenomena to glorify the truly mediocre. Joe the Opportunist is what he should be called and who or what he endorses has about as much relevance as what socks he chose to wear that morning.

The stories of a “tightening” race have me worried, of course. I am worried that Republican mischief will succeed as it did in 2000, aided significantly by the supposedly non-political Supreme Court. I lost all respect for the Court that year.

A day or so ago. Governor Crist of Florida did something fair. He called for the early voting polls to stay open more days and for longer periods. Someone backing McCain said Crist had “just put the nail in McCain’s coffin.” I think it is revealing that “playing fair” in giving voters more convenience in voting means the Republicans will have a problem. Well, of course, they will. In the last two elections their tactics in disenfranchising Democratic voters has risen to a high art.

I write letters to the editor and just sent one to the Fort Myers News-Press. Whenever there was an issue that had me fulminating, Jay, my late husband, before Ed, used to say, “Write them one of your famous letters.” So I have.

Here it is.

To the Editor:
I wasn’t following the Republican primaries in 2000 so knew little of John McCain. My husband, a registered Republican, filled me in, saying McCain was the only hope the Republican party had of staying in the mainstream but was unlikely to get the nomination because the evangelicals didn’t want him and they were in control. He was surprised and pleased this year when McCain succeeded.

Since that time, he has been astonished to see the deterioration of McCain’s integrity, let alone his campaign. This is not the man he knew at one time.

Meanwhile, McCain has an ad that says Obama has not been tested. Other than being a prisoner of war who managed to survive, a feat of endurance in adversity, how has McCain been tested? Who has he led in crisis? Who did he save in that prison camp other than himself? I don’t know what he is talking about. Do you? While in training in the navy, McCain crashed 7 airplanes. His father and grandfather, former navy admirals, saved him from getting drummed out. In that context, he mirrors the young Bush, a failure in private business, bailed out by his family, and suddenly a president.

McCain wants to “win” in Iraq. Bush says our mission has been “accomplished”. Why are we still there and spending $10 billion a month when the Iraqis are sitting on tons of oil revenue money? Why are they not contributing to their own recovery? We are borrowing billions from China to support this effort. We went in there so that George W. could avenge his father’s failure because Bin Laden was never there and there were never any weapons of mass destruction. If I were Bush senior, I would be hiding in the cellar.

The McCain of 2000 has disappeared. He did not succeed then because of a series of despicable ads (he called them) full of lies and innuendo. But when things got tough in 2008, McCain hired the same people to run ads for him and do the same to Obama. Whatever integrity McCain had is on a back burner because it is so important to him to get his 15 minutes as president. (I personally feel his health is a real issue.) And Palin is in the wings, ready to turn the country back to the 18th century on Day One.

On the personal side and directly relating to character (if we are going to criticize Clinton, let us take a good look at McCain) McCain takes responsibility for abandoning his first wife, Carol, after a car crash left her frail and disfigured, “not the woman he married”. He married, Cindy, 15 years younger, beautiful, wealthy and politically connected, 5 weeks after his divorce. Admitting to shallow self-interest doesn’t make it all right. Carol has refused interviews. About all she has ever said is this to McCain biographer Robert Timberg: “John was turning 40 and wanting to be 25 again.”

I say this to all you “undecideds” out there. McCain and Palin are both deeply flawed. A high-ranking Republican campaign figure describes Palin as “a whack job.” She has lied on camera, relying on the classic "what elephant?" defense. These are not people I want to see directing this country’s destiny. Palin appears to have given up on McCain and is already looking ahead to her career as a major player in the Republican party. She will probably run for elective office again, joining forces with the evangelical right. What a shame. She so richly deserves obscurity.

Xx, Teal

P.S. I’ll let you know if they print it. I am two for two, so far with the News-Press.