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About TheCenterLane.com
TheCenterLane.com offers opinion, news and commentary on politics, the economy, finance and other random events that either find their way into the news or are ignored by the news reporting business. As the name suggests, our focus will be on what seems to be happening in The Center Lane of American politics and what the view from the Center reveals about the events in the left and right lanes. Your Host, John T. Burke, Jr., earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Boston College with a double major in Speech Communications and Philosophy. He earned his law degree (Juris Doctor) from the Illinois Institute of Technology / Chicago-Kent College of Law.
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PSD
October 23, 2008
It happened again. Another conservative pundit predicted that Barack Obama would likely become the 44th President of the United States. This time it was David Frum, appearing on The Colbert Report. Frum stated that the McCain-Palin ticket is unlikely to win the election, unless Obama-Biden loses it. With that in mind, Joe Biden has now begun wearing his Halloween costume. He will continue to do so through Halloween weekend for the supposed purpose of entering as many Halloween costume contests as possible. Halloween is on a Friday this year. Biden has been entered in contests through Sunday night. He will be wearing a ball gag in his mouth. He will be carrying a card with the following explanation:
This is my Halloween costume. I am the “ball gag guy” from Pulp Fiction.
After the Halloween costume contests, Biden will be able to remove the gag from his mouth during the wee hours of Monday morning. On Monday, he will begin eating soft pastas and work his way up to solid food. Tuesday won’t matter, since that will be Election Day.
Unfortunately, things look worse for Republican Vice-Presidential candidate, Sarah Palin. I am reminded of her fate by the constant appearance of Brooke Shields on TV. By now, most of the public might realize that Brooke is apparently suffering from Post-Stardom Depression (PSD). This condition has ostensibly caused her to appear in televised Volkswagen commercials. Poor Brooke! Her self-esteem must have gone through the floorboards! Isn’t there any medication that can help her with this? Did Tom Cruise dissuade her from taking it?
Meanwhile, Republican operatives have already announced that Sarah Palin’s campaign outfits will be given to charity after the election. At least Sarah managed to secure possession of “The Cards” (the cue cards from her appearance on Saturday Night Live). After the election, PSD could likely put Sarah into a world of hurt. Trig would be sitting in his playpen, crying … and Sarah would be sitting on the rec room floor, crying and hugging The Cards. All will be lost. She will be forced to return to her existence as the Governor of the State of Alaska. Her attention will be abruptly refocused from the world’s most monumental crises, to the humdrum issues involving meth labs and snow machines. She would, no doubt, do her best to cope with this malady. She might go so far as to seek compensation for this unexpected hardship. The Republican Party could hire experts to testify that PSD does not really exist. Governor Palin might be forced to hire experts to dispute those opinions and, in the process, eventually be compelled to disclose personal records concerning the consultations between those experts and herself. It could get really ugly. The would-be “poster woman” of the future “gender-inclusive” Republican Party might end up being portrayed by her former advisors as just another “claimant”, attempting to milk the “frivolous lawsuit” system for all it is worth.
Many of us began to suspect that Sarah would get “thrown under the bus” after the election. We became suspicious of this, once she was assigned to deliver the “cheap shots” against Obama in her stump speeches. MSNBC’s Chuck Todd has already expressed suspicion that John McCain might be harboring resentment toward Palin, out of concern that she could be the reason for his diminished standing in the polls. After all, most commentators believe her candidacy wasn’t McCain’s idea, anyway. At the Republican Convention, Newt Gingrich did a lot of bragging that the selection of Palin was his idea. Will this bragging continue after Election Day?
In the weeks ahead, the human tragedy could take its toll. Will Sarah Palin be left in the ditch with PSD? Will it be necessary for her to “eat crow” and capitulate to reliance on Barack Obama’s health care plan, to address PSD? Regardless of what the courts might do with such a claim, karmic justice would prevail.