Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Elections: let the silliness begin

The silly season of the presidential election has started unfolding. Instead of having intense discussions on, say, the economy, bank regulations, the wars, immigration, the crumbling infrastructure, federal deficits and debt, .... and the list goes on, .... we are now down to the Ferragamo shoes that McCain wears, and whether Obama is out of touch with the regular world.

I think, if at all, it is only the left that is beginning to make noise about this (not that I always agree with them). A group of ultra-lefties have signed an open letter to Obama, perhaps worried about his slow drift towards the political center. But, better yet is Katha Pollit's piece, on the bizarre response from McCain on viagra v. contraception pills:
There's the basic unfairness of not covering these essential, even life-saving drugs and devices, so fundamental to women's health and well-being, and the added insult of denying coverage while men are lavished with cut-rate erections. And there's the craven submission to religious extremists that moves the politics of that denial. It's a pocket-book issue, too: A year's worth of contraception can cost a woman $600. That's a lot of money. Is it too much to expect the next president of the United States to understand that? Now that every politican in America prides himself on knowing the price of a gallon of milk and talks like he's just finished doing the week's shopping for a family of ten?

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