I realize the kind of people who actually show up for Election Night campaign parties to hear (live and in-person) the victory or concession speeches of political candidates are the types who like to be fed the political equivalent of Pablum.
Yet as I listened on the radio to the speeches made respectively by Mitt Romney (upon his presidential primary victory Tuesday in Illinois) and Rick Santorum (who lost yet again), I couldn’t help but wonder what kind of people these were who were getting so worked up over the trite trash being spewed by both candidates for president.
ROMNEY WAS LIVING it up while speaking before a gathering in northwest suburban Chicago, being able to claim a “victory” in President Barack Obama’s home state.
Of course, the fact that all this means is that he gained significant suburban support without really impacting the rest of Illinois means his “victory” isn’t likely translate into Electoral College delegates from the Land of Lincoln in the Nov. 6 general election.
Yet he was in his glory in going on a rant about how Obama is damaging our nation by pursuing policies that inhibit business interests from being able to advance themselves.
After all, they’d be able to create more jobs if only they didn’t have to comply with all those pesky regulatory guidelines that are meant to protect the environment on behalf of the public.
PERSONALLY, I FOUND his attempt at giving a history “lesson” to be the most lame aspect of his speech. He tried citing several moments in history that “wouldn’t have happened” if a “President Obama” were in office at that moment.
The lightbulb would have been banned, and the Wright Brothers would have been cited for stirring up excess dust when they first invented what evolved into the airplane.
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| An environmental crime? Only in the mind of Mitt Romney |
Meanwhile, the crowd cheered and applauded – lapping up the nonsense political talk about as eagerly as a dog with no sense that drinks from the toilet bowl because he (or she) doesn’t know any better.
Personally, I found the rhetoric to be absurd – although since I was driving an automobile at the time I had to focus my attention on the road ahead rather than start screaming rants at Romney’s persona.
WHICH NOW SHIFTS its focus away from Illinois – Louisiana is next. Just as quickly as the Republicans swarmed over our state (except for Chicago proper), they will now neglect us.
We were a cheap fling for them, and once we “put out” with our presidential delegates (Romney gained a significant number because his campaign was better structured) we get cast aside.
That literally was the feeling I sensed from the speech given by Rick Santorum (which I also heard on the car radio).
For it seems that Santorum couldn’t wait to leave our state. He gave his Illinois primary concession speech from Gettysburg, Pa., and going on-and-on about how glad he was to be at home.
BUT WHILE ROMNEY’S rhetoric offended my sensibilities of truth, Santorum just gave me a chuckle.
I particularly enjoyed his comment about how he “won” the bulk of votes in Southern Illinois, central Illinois and western Illinois. Or, as he put it, the parts of Illinois where, “conservatives and Republicans populate.”
By that line of logic, the 1994 general election in Illinois wasn’t bad because Democrats continued to dominate Cook County – even if they lost the rest of the state and we got stuck for two years with a Republican-dominated state government that pushed an ideological agenda that targeted Chicago interests.
It would have been nonsense 18 years ago, and is nonsense now.
TALK ABOUT TURNING “defeat” into “Victory!!!” I only wish I could have been in the company of a Romney-ite (or should we call them Mitt-men?) to hear what they thought of that rhetorical flourish.
And I’m pretty sure that sane people (a.k.a., the real majority) will be thankful that yet another Election Day has come and gone.
Only 231 more “shopping” days until the next one.
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