Hats Off

Everyone loves bashing politicians, and sometimes with good reason. But I can tell you that running for high-profile public office is something that I would never ever want to do. What other job is there where people dig around through every dark corner of your life and then publicize their findings for the whole world to hear? It must be so maddening for these folks to be out on the campaign trail and people are questioning them about something they said or did 20 years ago. So hats off to those folks for putting themselves out there in order to serve their constituents.

I think my favorite example is the story about Mitt Romney's dog. This is sort of old news by now, but I still want to comment on it. Apparently some 25 years ago, Mitt packed his family up for vacation. He strapped a dog carrier to the top of the car for the family's Irish Setter, Seamus, to ride in. For some reason, the dog cuts loose with a bad case of number two while the family is en route and makes a big mess, so Mitt has to stop and hose it down. And then somehow, this story comes up during his Presidential campaign.

So that produces a big commotion about whether Mitt violated animal cruelty laws and PETA has to weigh in with their two cents as well, and so all these folks think Mitt is unfit for the presidency because a dog crapped on his car a quarter-century ago.

Okay, I agree that maybe Mitt shouldn't have strapped his dog on top of the car for a lengthy drive. But haven't we all done a thing or two, that in hindsight, wasn't a real good idea?

But no matter how bad all the rabble-rousers try to make this seem, Mitt Romney isn't exactly Michael Vick.

I think that people forget that 1983 was a different time than 2008. Back then, every third high school or college team in America had an Indian or some other Native American representation as their mascot. I don't even think most people were buckling up their kids in 1983. I know I spent a considerable amount of time in the 1980s riding in the back of pickup trucks or rolling around in the back of the family station wagon. Darn good thing neither of my parents is on the ballot this November.

I guess maybe I'm a softie, since I've already let Becky and Kirby off the hook. But I don't think how an individual treated an animal 25 years ago has any bearing on whether they would be an effective president, and it doesn't matter if it's Hillary's Shi Tzu or Obama's Doberman or McCain's Cocker Spaniel or Ron Paul's rabid Rottweiler. PETA should stick to whatever it is they usually do, which I believe is taking pictures of celebrities with their clothes off. I'm disappointed that Mitt didn't get the nomination, or we might have been in store for some interesting lines of questioning during the televised debates this fall.