“Bunkie!” called Clyde as I entered. “What you up to today? It’s Thursday, have you finished your column already?”
“No Clyde, I haven’t, that’s why I’m here.
“I need to just level out a bit, and what better place than here?”
Clyde answered, “Well, for levelin’ out I always go down to the river. Let’s grab a couple a poles, a cooler of beer, and take your truck up to the foot of the dam.”
As we turned off Philpott Dr. and headed up the little gravel road, I realized Clyde sometimes knows just what I need. I don’t need a fish. Or the beer, really. Just a quiet place to think.
“Clyde, it’s been a revealing week hasn’t it?”
“You talkin’ ’bout that Muslim stuff? Yeah, that’s been something else fo’ sho.”
We got out of the truck, Clyde took the cooler from the bed, and we walked down to the riverside and sat on a big rock and cracked one open. “Well, that, but mostly what it’s revealed about Obama and Romney and TV news. Oh, and don’t forget Hillary.”
“What did it show you, Bunkie?”
“As always Obama trolled around for someone to blame. Our Ambassador to Egypt gave him a little crumb with his first press release that blamed the first amendment and some video.
“He settled in on crackpot who put a video on YouTube several months ago. Even had this guy’s home raided in the middle of the night, with TV crews already on site, by L.A. County Sheriff’s deputies and FBI agents.
“He kept insisting that the video was the cause of the unrest, until he had to admit it was a coordinated attack. That was today. A week and a half later. The TV news insisted it was the video too. Some still do.
“Romney, on the other hand, grabbed the bull by the horns, pointed out that the ambassador was wrong, and condemned the attacks.”
“Yeah,” Clyde replied, “It’s been all over the TV, saying Romney jumped the gun, shot first and aimed later, all kinds of such stuff. The way I see it, neither Obama nor Hillary took that 3:00 am call, but it got forwarded to Romney, who stepped up and answered, early on the 12th.”
“That’s pretty much the way it stood, Clyde. Until it was finally revealed that the White House had advance warning.
“It was also revealed that on Hillary’s orders there were to be no Marines at the consulate. And the sub-contract security, who employed Libyans, were not allowed to have bullets.”
“Let me get that straight. We left the consulate guarded by a group about as strong as a girl scout troop?” Clyde asked.
“Something like that. And that called for a diversion.
“Jimmy Carter’s grandson, (Who’s unemployed, by the way. Don’t you just love irony?), stepped forward with a video of the most remarkable thing in the world. A politician actually telling the truth.
“He stated the obvious, that there are about 47% of voters who will vote for Obama regardless. Maybe because they have grown dependent on government handouts. He has no reason to try to reach them, because he can’t. No way. No how.
“See, roughly half of Americans pay no income tax. Sure, like all of us they pay sales tax, excise tax, gas tax, and other hidden taxes, so politicians always try to turn the discussion away from income tax. But they actually get more back than they paid in at income tax refund time. Not very many of them will want to jeopardize that.”
(By the way, Tim Kaine promised to fix that little flaw in his first debate today with George Allen.)
“Well, this little excursion has leveled me out, and we didn’t even get the poles out of the truck. Glad you brought the beer cooler, though.”
Clyde grinned as he poured the water from the near empty cooler, looked up at me and said, “Didn’t bring no poles.”
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