I was thinking recently about our era of insane media scrutiny of every syllable spoken or written by candidates, or even associates of those candidates. So I'm asking people to post things you've said recently, or things done or said by your close associates or family members, that would make CNN headline news if you were running for president. ME: In a meeting two days ago, with a few catholic church officials on hand, I was asked about the Pope's visit. I called him Ratzinger (sp), his name as a cardinal, which I understand to be inappropriate. You have to call him Pope Benedict the whatever now. That seriously might get airplay for offending the church and its followers, if I was running for president. Also, in working on a building design and ADA issue (Americans with Disabilities Act), I made a poor joke about a contraption we would have to build to get wheelchair bound people up to a certain piece of equipment. That would get airplay. Also, since I used to run a radio show (college radio, but large market), there are possibly tapes of all sorts of dumb things I've said. I chose to interview controversial people like drug legalization folks, hate-filled punk bands, and the like. I definitely said a few anti-government things also, things that would sound down-right Marxist. So if those tapes exist (who knows), those would get airplay. I'm not even going to go into things family members have said, things they espouse, or things good friends have said and done. Sheesh. I mean, I have friends who are avowed socialists (also libertarians, which is much less controversial of course.) I am frocked in wedge issues. Not that I would be a good political candidate anyway, but I would be DOA. I don't have any history of lies, and I don't have rich controversial friends, but there's a ton of other ammo. Anybody else? I guess the exercise is to think about the scrutiny McCain and Obama and Clinton endure and think about how much import you'd want to put on single statements if you consider your every single move and word (and those of your associates) being scrutinized. Maybe y'all are more squeaky clean than I am.
i called a black preacher a "brotha" in an anonymous bbs post. pretty sure someone would have a problem with that.
I would be CNN's dream come true- Just in the public record: I committed adultery twice Arrested for Drug Smuggling Stole drugs from a pharmacy Arrested for felony theft Sold mar1juana to help pay for college Voted for McGovern AND Reagan I enlisted in ROTC at college to avoid the Vietnam draft Against the war in Iraq Strongly Pro-life I am totally un-electable to any public office.
In twenty years....when the generation who chronicled their college years on myspace ...start running for office...things are going to be mighty interesting. And if any of our full monty posters run for office -- there might be a response to a poop thread that would form the basis of a fox news special report. We may never have to talk about issues again!
Hmmm...I passed out coat hangers as people were leaving a pro life rally on the UH campus in the early 90's. I made a big stink at the DPS over them wanting to fingerprint me despite the fact I had no criminal record. My drinking habits and some illegal drug use might come under scrutiny. The fact I am 37 and have never been married pretty much disqualifies me for most offices (I do theater, I own cats, lots of people assume I am gayer than toe shoes) I think simple homeliness prevents me from running for high office in the United States, i'm 300 pounds and don't have a movie stars jawline. (Though I guess I could be VP, as I am not significantly uglier than Dick Cheney.)
The "brotha" controversy is intriguing. Before I used it on D&D a while back, I actually spent quite some time goolging the potential offensiveness surrounding the word in several different ways to see if there might be problem with the usage. Nothing showed on my search. Zero, nada. Maybe time has changed, so I searched again. Same result. So what's the peculiarity about this little urban slang?
I believe Hyperbole to be a realm in Robert E. Howard's universe. Conan led a rather, shall we say, active sex life. He believed in using the blade first and asking questions later. He became a monarchist. That would doom me to political purgatory. Worst of all, I've been accused of being an android, even by my director! Impeach Bush. Send Him to Sell Ice Cream in Tibet.
My Methodist minister when I was a kid drove his Maserati through the wall of some sort of high tech lab on Nasa road one that used nuclear material for testing. Many people in the Clear Lake/ Webster area did not like the place and the police thought it was some sort of protest against the lab, but in reality he was just wasted. I think he was wearing his minister outfit when he crashed the car. He lived about 4 houses down from us and would regularly leave bottles of wine sitting in the car -- he would also come ripping down the street from time to time. He was quite the character, but everyone liked him and he was with the church through the accident. My family didn't leave the church even though god and everyone else there knew he was an alcoholic and openly questioned why he was tooling around in an expensive sports car. ____ I have a million other personal stories that would probably preclude me from running for president... I'd have to get by on my looks.
I have made a plethora of tasteless sexual jokes. It's my hobby. I made a terrible political joke. Pronounce the words Obama Nation. Now pronounce abomination. Sounds eerily similar. Funny...but would not play well on CNN. Most of my foibles are really ill advised jokes. It's a compulsion.
i make all types of innappropiate race/sex/religion jokes. i make fun of a new orleans guy that i work with. i've only stolen hearts. never material goods.
I talk about this with my wife sometimes. I think its a bit of an embarassment we can't have a candidate who didn't do drugs (not that it'd really impact how I vote, it just seems like it wouldn't be that hard). My own record is pretty clean -- no drugs, no sex scandals, no real estate scandals, no significant friendships with embarassing people. I can think of 3 achilles' heels: (1) Dual citizen, French-American. (2) Attend a theologically very conservative church but not religious myself. That may leave the religious and irreligious dissatisfied. (3) This BBS. This probably goes for a lot of posters. I say stuff here that could get spun pretty badly. One that comes to mind is praise I've given to Castro; you know that's going to hurt. Plenty of stuff to show on soft on terror. And it's all in print for any contributing member to look up. My real problem would be that I'm too boring.
