Silly Season

A little while back, Barack Obama, appearing on TV with David Letterman, said that it's the silly season in politics. He then clarified his remark by saying that there's no time when it's not the silly season in politics.

But is the presidential campaign in fact too serious? In this age of political consultants, have the candidates become preprogrammed robots, rather than human beings?

Here's a blog post in The New York Times by Dick Cavett. He makes the point that some other commentators have mentioned as well, that John McCain has a good sense of humor, when he allows it to come through. But he too often projects the image of an angry old man.

If you haven't seen video of the candidates' speeches at the Al Smith dinner, you should. I found them on YouTube by searching "Smith Dinner". That event is a fundraiser by the Archdiocese of New York, for the foundation named for Smith, who was governor of New York and the 1928 Democratic presidential nominee.

In most presidential election years in the post-World War II era, the candidates have made humorous speeches at the dinner. Well, I think they were supposed to be humorous. Maybe John and Cindy McCain really did hire Joe the Plumber to work on all seven of their houses, thereby giving him so much income that Barack Obama would raise his taxes. And maybe Barack Obama was really sent as a baby from Krypton, in order to save Earth. However, I still don't believe that "Barack" is Swahili for "that one".

McCain seems to be getting advice from all sides, as to how he might change tack and attempt to break Obama's momentum.

There was similar criticism of Bob Dole during the 1996 campaign. He didn't take the advice, and therefore spent the next eight years making humorous TV appearances with Jon Stewart, et al.