As the Blue Fairy told Pinocchio: Your conscience will tell you.

Let me just get the New York Times/Google Hangout thing out of the way first. 

New York Times Conversations With Voters: A War on Women ?

It was fun. The other women were terrific. Although it didn't come out sounding like we had vastly differing opinions, we did. But we also realized fighting about it is counterproductive. What I found particularly interesting was that before we went live, we pointed out to our "handlers" that we were all white. And unfortunately, we lost the feed to one of the Republican women due to technical issues. And you should also know that after we were off the air, so to speak, we women hung out in the chat room for another 20 minutes just talking. This has great potential and I hope the NY Times continues to explore this process. I know I'd do it again! I'd even let Frank Bruni moderate. Despite missing Gail Collins, he was just fine. 

************* 

In doing due diligence for the hangout, I actually watched the Republican convention. In so many ways, it was like watching a train wreck: you were almost afraid to look away lest you miss something. I had my own take on the experience, but nothing that even made me think for even one New York second I could vote for any of these guys. I must confess, however, I enjoyed Governor Christie's self-nomination for 2016. It was verbose, overblown, and self-aggrandizing in ways I thought were obsolete.

We had just listened to Romney Ann-toinette tell us peasants that she was there to reassure us about Mitt and love, when Governor Christie took the stage told us to forget love:

You see, I believe we have become paralyzed, paralyzed by our desire to be loved.  Now our founding fathers had the wisdom to know that social acceptance and popularity were fleeing, and that this country's principles needed to be rooted in strengths greater than the passions and the emotions of the times.

That wasn’t the biggest issue with his speech. Maybe that he almost forgot to mention the nominees might have been the bigger issue.

http://mariopiperni.com/

It got better. The next night, to accept his nomination, Paul Ryan bounded onto that stage like a second-grader. And just like a lot of little kids, he wasn’t real familiar with the distinction between telling the truth and not telling the truth. When FOX News has to call out the fact checkers because the kid’s nose is growing while his lips are still moving, there is a fundamental problem. And if you’re not sure about that…check out marathon times. He does not appear to be able to tell the truth. Ever. 

Silly me, I thought this was an important aspect of being a national leader.

As if all this were not enough, there was the embarrassing old uncle address by Clint Eastwood. Weird Ol’ Uncle Clint talked to an imaginary President Obama and boy, was his imagination in full force. ‘Nuff said on that. Probably too much.

I won’t even comment on Mitten’s speech because if I did, I’d fall asleep at the keyboard. Boring would be kind. Droning would be more accurate. His speech was so uninspired that not only did he not get a bump in his ratings after the convention, Gallup’s poll rated it the lowest since Bob Dole’s 1996 acceptance speech.

The pièce de résistance was the question: Are you better off now than you were four years ago?

I cannot speak for anyone else, but my answer is a resounding “YES.”  

Yeah, I am still a widow and still struggling with some of the day to day stuff, but overall, I am far better off now than I was when I started paying attention to these things three years ago. The economy is growing slowly but steadily. Job growth is still slow, but consumer demand coupled with continued growth in the housing markets are signs that we are moving in the right direction. GM is still building cars and has paid off its loans. People are shopping. In my business, corporate travel, we’re busier than we’ve been in the last few years because companies are doing business face-to-face again. Oh, yeah, Osama Bin Laden is dead and we don’t have to hear that Tora Bora dialysis nonsense any more.   

As we head into the Democratic National Convention tomorrow, I want to make this perfectly clear to them: Answer the damn question. President Obama can and should run on his record. He should point out that despite an obstructionist Congress, stuff got done.  The TARP loans are almost all paid in full. The GNP is growing. There is an Affordable Health Care Act. Remind this country that not everyone owns a business – small, medium, or large.

And remind the country that there’s room for independent contractors, artists, musicians, writers, freelancers, athletes, waitrons, burger flippers, part-timers and the like who are do not have subsidized health care options, vacation and holiday pay, or even regular paychecks. Those of us who pursue those paths should neither be ignored nor left out of the conversation.

And if you do….those of us with the pens, ink, keyboards, stages, and comedy routines will pillory the hell outta all of you. I’m just sayin’………………………

 © 2012, Steven G. Artley, ARTLEY CARTOONS 

The Wifely Person Tip O'the Week

The pen IS mightier than the sword. Trust me on this one.