To be quite honest, I'm procrastinating on doing my comparison of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton vis a vis their economic plans.  Tomorrow is the primary in Pennsylvania and maybe there won't be a need for a comparison after the ballots are counted--so it seems a potentially futile discussion.

So instead, I'll share a snippet of conversation from an undisclosed Starbucks location this weekend.  We were seated next to an older couple (70ish) and couldn't help but overhear as one of their cronies buttonholed them and starting talking about the Democrats Primary campaign.

The buttonholer, let's call him Hank, brought the couple up to date on Obama's latest endorsements.  Hank siad darkly that most of these folks endorsing Obama had likely been promised cabinet positions in exchange for their endorsement. 

It occured to me and the older man, let's call him Stew, at about the same time that Hillary was probably making promises to folks about cabinet positions as well.  Stew put it a bit more diplomatically than I would have.  "I think they all do that, don't they?"

I might have said, "What's your point?  The most sinister spin you can put on these endorsements is he's more persuasive when making promises than Hillary is.  Sheesh!  Everybody knows that already!"

Hank went on to say he didn't think things could get any better for the Republicans than running against Obama or Clinton, "unless they bring Gore in and try to elect him."

It took every ounce of my willpower not to lean over and ever-so-gently correct Hank.  "You mean re-elect Gore, don't you?" 

After Hank left, Stew's wife (we'll call her Lois) leaned over and said she hoped we hadn't paid attention to him.  Lois said they tried to hide from him because "he does this all the time."

Maybe I should have said something, if nothing else for Hank and Lois's sake.  But I was grumpy and on my way to visit a friend in prison...so Hank and Lois will just have to fend for themselves.  Or find a better hiding spot.

Leave a Reply