As a general rule, I try not to look at any special deal or sale item, no matter how compelling, when I'm broke. Since I am decidedly very cash poor right now, it was even more remarkable that I read on. There were nice leather dining room chairs, and Movado watches, 600 thread count sheets, and 32" flat-screen LCD monitors. I have no dining room table, I'm still not over the tragic loss of my first Movado watch (I'm forever in mourning), and I'm neither in the market for any new sheets nor a flat monitor so I was not the least bit tempted, but I scrolled down anyway. But then, I saw it. No, it wasn't a steal of a deal or anything that I absolutely must have. No, it was something that I never would have expected to see in this email advertisement. It was a letter from the CEO of Overstock, a Mr. Patrick M. Byrne, and he had titled it Ron Paul, Fox News, and Me. Perhaps it was my curiosity as a new blogger that made me read on. I thought, "Hmm...this CEO is blogging, let me see what he's talking about."
What I read was fairly interesting. In short, Fox News was planning to exclude Ron Paul (whose name always makes me giggle as I immediately think of the Jamaican recording artist singing "Just gimme da light" and/or Ron Jeremy the,..um...yeah...him...) from a forum in New Hampshire in preparation for the primary there later this month. Why is this significant? Well, for three reasons as far as I can tell. First, Mayor (for Life) Rudy "Go Yankees...start spreadin' the news" Giuliani is being allowed to participate even though Paul tallied more than 2.5 times the votes than did Rudy in Iowa. The second is that Mr. Byrne had a chance to meet with Ron Paul for an hour when he came to Utah and stopped by the Overstock offices (I didn't even know they were in Utah. I learn something new everyday.)Apparently Mr. Byrne was really taken by Paul (no, not taken like "he got took!", but really impressed with him) and proceeded to give him the largest donation allowable by law, stating that, among other things, it was "rare to meet a politician who understands the Constitution, and rarer still to meet one who thinks it binds the government meaningfully". Lastly, as CEO of a company, Mr. Byrne is beholden to people like his Board of Directors and maybe share holders if Overstock is a public company. While he received many letters from customers urging him to pull Overstock adds from Fox stations, he ultimately felt it irresponsible for him to make a decision that could effect the corporation's bottom line based on his personal politics. Fair enough. Here's the cool part though. He did voice his strong objection to Fox, contacting them to give a piece of his mind, as a major advertiser on their network. I know nothing about this cat, but I'll give him credit for having the chutzpah (look it up...lol) to even pen this little note and then put it out to all of his customers. Politically correct AND corporately responsible. You gotta love it.
Don't you just love an election year? Everyone gets into the spirit, backing candidates that they've never heard of until recently and then entrusting them with the reigns of the most powerful country in the free world (well, as the saying goes anyway). I mean, really? Who is Ron Paul? He's a career politician and part time obstetrician (yeah, delivering babies) from Texas that, although a Republican for the past 30 years ran for president in the 1988 election after winning the Libertarian party nomination. Known as Dr. No, because as he tells it, he he will "never vote for legislation unless the proposed measure is expressly authorized by the Constitution", he currently serves on the House Foreign Affairs committee and goes left about as often as Charlotte Bobcats shooting guard Jason Richardson. I didn't know any of this until doing some research (gold star for wikipedia!), except that he was a senator from Texas. I love the sound bites that the news media always gets from the average joe's (who also don't know these cats from Adam) and then runs them all over television over and over again. The hype that created hype. I was listening to NPR today and they interviewed some lady at some obscure Wyoming Primary who was down like 4 flats for some cat named Duncan Hunter. Back to wikipedia I went. (Wow, maybe I oughta make a donation?) Okay, so Duncan Hunter is another career politician that currently serves as Republican Representive for the 52nd district in California (San Diego area) and seems to be down with anything on W's agenda related to defense and armed services (he's been the chairman of the Armed Services Committee since 2002). Again, I had not heard of this cat until today.
Without doing any of our own digging, we're all really victims forced to get to know whomever the media are talking about(translated: covertly, subliminally, shoving down your throat). I got to thinking about other elections and obscure candidates that came and went. They had their 15 minutes of fame and then either were forgotten or just crawled back into their hole (i.e. whatever political seat they held before they dared to dream, however misguided or cheated out of their big chance even after winning the popular vote...but I digress) never to be really heard from again. For some reason, the 1980 election came to mind. I was 8 years old and in the 3rd grade at the time.
Now, don't get me wrong. I was by no means Alex P. Keaton from Family Ties. I was a regular kid that liked to play 2-hand touch football between the lampposts in the street after school until it got dark and then would probably catch a glimpse of the news during dinner. This is back in the days when it was just Dan Rather and Peter Jennings or Walter Cronkite or Tom Brokaw. No CNN. No Fox News. No MSNBC. It was just news for about 30 minutes, and then another 30 or so with Ted Koppel if you stayed up late (I didn't). What I remember most about 1980 were the Olympics and the Iran hostage situation. In the winter Olympics, we had the "Miracle on Ice" with the U.S. Hockey team coming out of nowhere to win gold. Much to my dismay, the Summer Olympics (which were my absolute favorite before they started ruining the coverage in the '90s) were cancelled because they were in Moscow and we weren't going unless Russia got out of Afghanistan. The Ayatollah Khomeini was on the news every night as public enemy #1 as the hostage situation was in full swing. I'm rambling down memory lane now. I apologize. Where was I?
Oh yeah. Getting behind obscure candidates. For some reason, I had it in my head that John Anderson was the way to go. After giving a brief lesson on elections and government, my 3rd grade teacher decided to have us vote in class for President and I was trying to rally support for Anderson. How the heck did I arrive at that? I still don't know to this day. I do remember that there were alot of signs on peoples lawns in my neighborhood with his name on them. I remember seeing him on the news and maybe on a debate, but I have no clue as to why I would champion his cause in my 3rd grade mock election. I knew that Republican candidate Ronald Reagan was the enemy. On that much I was quite clear, and still am. I probably got that from my parents and the things they would yell at the TV (my mom) or laugh cynically (my dad) whenever he was in the news. By the time he had served his 2 terms, I was 18 and could vote and had plenty of time to realize for myself that he was an idiot. Jimmy Carter was the current president at the time and was made to seem kind of weak and out of touch, by the media and mainly by the Reagan camp (probably in cahoots with the media). As an adult, I'm pretty fond of Carter and hold him in much higher esteem than I do any of he Republican characters that have dominated 20 out of the last 28 years. Those 8 in between were great though :-). Long live Slick Willy. Go Bubba, it's your Birthday...it's your Birthday. Sorry.
But Anderson? John Anderson! What was I thinking? He was running as an independent after having served in Congress for 20 years as a Representative from Illinois. The guy looked like Orville Redenbacher for crying out loud.
I doubt that he could've said anything that would've struck a chord with my 8 year old sensibilities. ("As president, I will make it unconstitutional for older sisters to make you get out of their room and recess will now be 3 hours long...."). Orville probably would have had just as strong a campaign in my book. Consulting Wikipedia yet again, it sounds like the other candidates new he was a clown too, Carter refusing to participate in debates if Anderson was there and Reagan welcoming the chance to make a fool out of the easy mark and insisting that he be included.
Well, he lost just as miserably amongst the 3rd graders in room 9 as he did in the real election. But that's why they play the games. He obviously thought he could win (like any great white hope that has stepped up for a significant boxing crown during my lifetime, only to be crushed..Jerry Quarry, Gerry Cooney, Tex Cobb, Ricky Hatton, etc. etc.) or he wouldn't have spent the money. Some other people donated money to his cause. Who knows why people do what they do? The optimist in me says that people try to get behind a cause that they believe will make the United States and the World a better place. My inner cynic is fairly certain that people support whomever will line their pockets, under the table or otherwise, at the likely expense of the greater good. But hey...that's why they play the games. Maybe Hope will defeat special interests this time.
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