Happy Chanukah

Susan Rice identified

I am sorry to confess that though I have been half-heartedly tracking the troubles of Susan Rice, I did not notice that she was a black woman. I caught on to the woman aspect immediately--I am nothing if not observant--but I didn't notice the earth-shattering information that she was black. If I thought anything about her ethnicity, I figured she was a Nice Jewish Girl. Like me.

Since it is obvious that race is the over-riding characteristic of anyone in American politics, I think it should be mandatory that the media identify everyone's race every time that person is in the news. Specify A (African-American), H (Hispanic), and so on. It can be done discreetly.

That way, everyone will know whether he, she or they should detect discrimination in that person's treatment and feel aggrieved and resentful at the proper time.

Strategy

The recent election results remind me of my experience playing Scrabble with an old friend.

Howie was really smart, but I was smart too, and had a much bigger vocabulary. Mr Charm claimed that Howie had a vocabulary of maybe eight words. So I should have won more often that not, right?

Wrong.

I thought Scrabble was a word game and enjoyed coming up with esoteric words, especially words employing the high point tiles. Howie, on the other hand, believed the objective of the game was to win. It was frustrating and maddening to have Howie use words like "ape" or "was" to block me and my terrific vocabulary.

I played Scrabble as a word game. Howie played to win.

Now a winning strategy is to play the game, any game, by denying your opponent any points. Figure out what he wants to do and prevent it from happening.

What does this have to do with the election which we so elegantly lost? We took the high road, the opposition played to win. We praised our candidate to the skies and proved that he was a fine fellow. Moreover, he had a nice family. Everyone showed up at his rallies and cheered him loudly. Then we stayed home from the polls in droves.

T

he Obama campaign, on the other hand, gave Romney the full Alinsky. They would not let Romney win a point. They made a boogieman out of him. They mocked his ideas and demonized the Tea Party as a bunch of right wing extremists. Meanwhile, none of our team refuted the slanders. Ah, the high road! Lonely as it is, it is a morally superior road to the top. Except when it doesn't lead anywhere.

Events tended to favor the president, of course. Hurricane Sandy ought to have been called Hurricane Obama. All he had to do was put on his little presidential suit and show up among the suffering. Alleviating their suffering was not needed.

I guess it's better to be lucky than smart.

Election day

Thank God it will all be over tomorrow. I hope whoever wins wins by a landslide--no hanging chads or recounts or Supreme Court decisions. In New York and Chicago, of course, there will be accusations--no doubt warranted, but no-one cares. It's hardly worth the Democrats' time digging up all the recently deceased, rounding up the undocumented and the felons, because they will win anyway. Are we honestly going to keep in office the only citizen in these 57 states who desires a new cabinet level agency, a Department of Business, despite the fact that we have a Department of Commerce, which is surely the same thing? Or isn't it? Or wants high speed rail system that will shoot people across this vast continent in 48 hours, despite the existence of the airline industry which can move passengers from coast to coast in 5 hours. I don't think Obama is the smartest person in the room any more, unless the room is his clothes closet. Upon closer acquaintance he has turned out to be a dunderhead and a bore.