Smashing Pumpkins

It was an uneventful Halloween out here in our part of Fairborn this year. Since the kids are both well into their teens, the days of dressing them up and escorting them around the neighborhood for their one night of 'confectionery extortion' are long gone (although they are now polishing off the bowl of visitor 'leftovers' in the living room as I type). I put up our Democrat yard signs last night so I was curious if they would reduce the amount of visitors to the house compared to years when we remained 'neutral' or if the 'trick-or-treaters' would risk knocking on the door of a scary 'librul' house...boo! Apparently, by the small amount of candy left at 8PM, they weren't the deterrent I thought they might be.

For some reason, this is the first year that I noticed that most Ohioans refer to this annual rite of passage as 'Beggar's Night'. When I was growing up in Pennsylvania, there was no other name used except Halloween. This alternate moniker seems to be a Midwestern thing (when I 'googled' the term, most of the hits were related to events in Ohio, Wisconsin and Iowa) and I'm guessing it was given to reduce the connection to the un-Christian aspects of the evening (costumes, characters). Some hits I got referred to October 30th--the night before 'All Hallows Eve'--as being 'Beggar's Night'. The only thing I remember hearing about in conjunction with Halloween was the anarchist phenomenon of 'Devil's Night'. Every year, our local TV stations would feature news stories about wide-scale arson and other public acts of property damage in and around the Detroit, Michigan area. Thankfully, that activity has subsided over the last decade or so but for a time it was something you could set your calendar by.

Speaking of periodic rituals (every even year), our current election cycle is coming to its highly anticipated conclusion next Tuesday. While some of our more notable races (US Senate, state governor) seem to be leaning to the Dems in Ohio (both Brown and Strickland have double-digit leads in the latest polls), there are still competitive races for other statewide and national offices. The tide has turned so much to the Democrats' advantage this year that the president--with a sub-40 percent approval rating--has been forced to campaign in only the most 'blood red' states and districts in order to salvage some measure of accomplishment for the GOP.

I mentioned in a previous post that I just missed of these campaign stops up in Scranton, Pennsylvania for Rep. Don Sherwood, PA-10. Down by nearly 10 points with just under three weeks to go, the president decided to pop up there on Air Force One to hopefully give his campaign a much needed boost. Unfortunately for Sherwood, he is still nine points down in the latest figures. As the sitting representative of perhaps the most conservative district in that state--he garnered 93 percent of the vote against his Constitution Party's opponent in 2004, you would think he'd be a shoe-in for reelection. However, this is the same Don Sherwood that settled a $5.5 million lawsuit out of court with his mistress for his alleged assault at his Washington, DC apartment. In fact, in one of his television spots, the only thing that Sherwood could 'gloat' about to his constituents was that no evidence of assault was ever proven in that case (he does forget to mention that he 'purchased' that evidence). After the rally, Bush joined Sherwood and his wife for some ice cream at a local store. I wonder if he recognized any of the new minimum wage employees his 'robust' economy provided jobs for over the last 4 to 5 years working on the other side of the counter...

The president campaigning with the Sherwood family in northeast Pennsylvania...with a six-figure income, you think he would've
at least sprung for some sprinkles...

In the 140+ hours left before the polls open next Tuesday morning, we can expect to see the unexpected, the bizarre and, in something that happened yesterday in Los Angeles, make- believe. Senator John Kerry-MA (D), during a campaign appearance for California gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides, tried to use humor and poke some fun at his 2004 presidential rival. He warmed up by saying that Bush, a Texas resident, now lives in 'a state of denial'. Hearing a few laughs from the crowd, he decided to continue on this tact by saying the following:

“You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”

At that point, he continued on through his remarks and turned over the podium to Mr. Angelides to continue the event. It wasn't until this morning's White House press briefing that the fecal matter hit the oscillating air-movement appliance. I won't get into all of the details but Kerry was accused by Tony Snow and other prominent Republicans of belittling our troops. The normal 'wing nut' hangouts (NRO's 'The Corner' and AM talk radio) were rabid in their universal condemnation of his implication that only 'dummies' were fighting in Iraq.

All of this 'righteous' indignation turns out to be false alarm because those previously stated words were misinterpreted by the GOP. He was referring to the president when he brought up the sup-par academic achievement and the resulting 'quagmire' his forces are currently embroiled in inside Iraq. You would think that Kerry's explanation would clear things up...but not in THIS reality! Bush, Snow and a whole slew of others readily sensed a 'red herring' to introduce into the final week of the campaign and they hit it hard and heavy throughout this news cycle. Kerry, apparently the recipient of a backbone transplant since his 2004 'swiftboating', released a scathing response to this smear job; however, this 'genie' was already out of its bottle and, unfortunately, only the passage of time will quell this issue.

"Let's see...if we give Karl this here pumpkin,
he'll make a real scary 'Dem'-o-lantern' out of it...heh heh heh"

I will admit that the first time I heard them, they were out of context (I didn't hear any of his attempts at Bush humor prior to them). Pat Buchannan of MSNBC said the same thing on this evening's 'Scarborough Country' program and we both see it how Kerry meant it to play out. Earlier in the day, with just those words, I was able to produce a logical explanation in some interoffice emails with some RW friends of mine based on my familiarity with the senator. I said I believed that Kerry may still be locked in a 'Vietnam' paradigm, telling the audience of college students that if you did not do well in school you'd lose your draft deferment and be eligible to be conscripted into the military if a draft is reinstituted due to more foreign policy debacles by the current administration. After excising that 30+ year-old 'lens', I was also able to see that he might have been telling folks that in our current economic situation and if college didn't pan out, the military may be the best option to get ahead. What other employer offers entry-level folks a guaranteed paycheck for 4-6 years at a stretch, free housing and extremely low-cost medical care, generous educational benefits and 30 days of annual vacation to start? I was enticed to join the military by these 'carrots' back in the high unemployment, high inflation times of the late 1970s and early 1980s living in the soon-to-be 'Rust Belt'.

What effect will this have on the Dem's chances next week? Every one of their Congressional candidates will have to take at least one question about it sometime in the next day or two and be asked to disavow him and/or his remarks. With the hours rapidly dwindling, that kabuki dance with the media will eat up time that could be better used to further their offensive on the Iraq war, homeland security and Washington corruption--Tim Russert's 'perfect storm' scenario that has played out in the aftermath of the Foley page scandal. This is the GOP's tried and true modus operandi of repeatedly beating up on familiar 'demons'...Bill Clinton, almost six years removed from the Oval Office, still makes the hairs on the back of Republican necks stand on end. The GOP is desperate (never having, in recent memory, faced such a bleak election outcome) and this incident might not be the last one to surface before the 7th...what other 'pumpkins' are they willing to carve up and smash between now and then?