More Fun With Dick And Jen

04-Sep-2006, 1907Z

I waited with baited breath to find out what Granholm's response would be to
the (precedent-setting?) inclusion of TV ads of the advertisement-as-press-release genre into the mix, already considered
by some to smell somewhat of conflict of interest due to the mixing of the
advertisement-as-campaign-speech and advertisement-as-opinion-piece metaphors.
I didn't have to wait long, as evidenced by the new (to me, anyway) Granholm ad I saw this morning.
How sad.

Earlier, I winced when Granholm rolled out an outline of recovery
themed on Michigan's role in an earlier World War, characterized by
Willow Run, the Warren Tank Plant, Rosie the Riveter and her millions of colleagues,
and the invention (tragic, when seen in 20/20 hindsight) of literally marrying the nation's
(especially, it seems, Michigan's) health insurance sector with its human resources sector.
Her patriotism is admirable, as is her concern for the state economy, and even her concern (assuming
at least that's at least part of her reason for using her considerable cheerleading talents
on behalf of the MIC) for the frightening
degree to which the bar has been raised for promotion into the "with bennies" segment of the labor market.
Prior to 9/11, the bennies bar issue was, I think, the most neglected issue, easily the
most neglected domestic policy issue, in the entire range of approved-for-wide-consumption public debate.

Flash back to a picture of yours truly. The date is September 10, 2001.
A mere 15 months ago I had turned 35, by some diabolical twist of federal policy, simultaneously ending my military enlistment eligibility
and beginning (thankx additionally to my obviously unearned "Born in the U.S.A." status, how silly, eh?)
my presidential election eligibility. Lucky for me (perhaps) my life ambitions
at the time were neither military nor political. Actually, they were overtly political
in the "personal is political" sense. I had taken up the pen (which some say is mightier than the sword)
in literal and extremely heartfelt service to
various "political" movements, including the free software movement, the open content movement,
the data-mining-reverse-engineering movement, and copyleftism. Even my spartan (at least by contemporary American standards)
lifestyle required resume enhancement, and the "chatter" I was monitoring from sources as diverse
as monster.com, misc.jobs.misc, misc.jobs.resumes (and many others) was crystal clear: The opporunity cost
(please, look up 'opportunity cost' if you're at all unsure what I mean)
of having hobbies such as, say, writing public domain computer programs, was in the process of skyrocketing.

This morning's Granholm ad was essentially a re-hash of the points made by Bouchard in his pre-primary adblitz,
stressing the rule of law, and Granholm's extensive prosecutorial background, which
includes substantial federal experience. I found this oddly reminiscent of the 1990(?) CT Senate race,
when I remember hearing on NPR some punditry taking note of the fact that Lieberman was explicitly and
transparently running against his Republican opponent "from the right." OK, the opponent in question was Weicker[sp?], but hay,
is that really a valid argument? And what of Lieberman's career since? The Granholm variant on the
Lieberman gambit is something of a mixed metaphor, aligning oneself (at least in terms of priorities)
with a candidate for another office running on another slate.

Things get curiouser and curiouser.