Odds and ends, 4/15/08

I can't shake the feeling that if Barack Obama is elected president, he would be another Jimmy Carter -- a person with a thin resume and oddball policies that would result in the next Ronald Reagan for the Republican Party four years from now.

Likewise, I think George Bush did the Republican Party a great disservice by not dumping Dick Cheney four years ago and choosing a worthy successor to be vice president and be the presumptive nominee this year. Think of all the money that could have been hoarded for the general election instead of being dissipated in the primaries. It's another example of Bush not looking out for his party's future. Just like his predecessor, Bush comes off to me as someone who sees himself as being the party. Now that he's the lamest of ducks, he's above it all, and the party gropes along, with the Reagan coalition dissolving as groups battle for power. If the Democrats weren't so good at self-destruction, John McCain could be in real trouble.

I'm waiting for Chelsea Clinton to tell everyone how she had to sit on her bulletproof vest and the plane circled for a landing at Yeager Airport a couple of weeks ago and how she had to duck sniper fire from NRA members as she ran across the tarmac. And I really want to know more about Hillary's claim of how she was taught to shoot a gun by her uncle or whoever, but not from her. I heard the sound bite on the news and immediately went into disbelief mode. I can't help it. Whenever I hear Clinton talk about her past, I can't believe her. That's why I can't recall many details. Why bother? They'll change soon.

Meanwhile, McCain chugs along. I'm still waiting for his first supersize gaffe, something like what Obama and Clinton have done. I'm sure it's coming. There are too many days between now and November.

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So I was watching one of the local TV stations last week when I saw a commercial for Cabell Huntington Hospital. It shows all these employees saying, "In my new hospital, I promise" this or that.

I turned to my wife and said, "I promise that when I draw blood, I will stick you only once." I mentioned that to a meeting of editors this morning, and just about everyone in the room started talking about how many times they had to be stuck for blood tests or whatever. I may not have stuck a vein, but I struck a nerve.

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The beauty -- or drawback -- of the Internet is that if you do something that's really stupid, or appears to be really stupid, it goes all over the world. Take this story from The Washington Post about an elementary principal who has banned tag during recess.

Ridiculous, right? Maybe not.

Gerri Swarm, secretary of the school's Parent-Teacher Association, said she was glad the principal was taking seriously student concerns about being pushed or shoved.

If a simple game of tag has become an excuse for big kids to push little kids down to the ground, then yes, do something and straighten things out.

But we all know tag is really a game of male domination in which the aggressive, athletic kids rule and nonathletic female nerds are marginalized. Sounds like good preparation for high school.