A Matter of Degree

The open mike mis-speak is becoming a campaign classic faux pas. We still remember John McCain vamping, "Bomb, bomb, bomb. Bomb, bomb Iran" to the tune of "Barbara Ann." You would think that it would be an automatic by now. When the technician comes up with the little small-of-the-back transmitter box and the lavalier microphone and clips them on you, from that point you only say what you've prepared and rehearsed. Take off the gadgetry and you can resume your normalcy, unless you are talking to mainstream media reporters, of course.

So, we've got a big deal about Carly Fiorina, former CEO of HP and now Republican candidate for US Senator from California, dissing Barbara Boxer's hair. Boxer is going to come up short in the credentials department when she goes nose-to-nose with a major corporation CEO, even if that experience wasn't a blockbuster in terms of corporate achievements. Boxer spent a couple of years flogging stocks after her college, then spent the next 30 years in elected office. She's got to find an edge and nothing resonates with the voters like a middle-aged harpy being dissed unfairly for her coifure.

Much Ado About Clips and Highlights

That umbrage doesn't seem all that rational to me, but then I'm just happy to have any hair left at all. Sort of like Fiorina, but without the justification of cancer-fighting chemo as a cause for my coiffure.

Here's an opposite take on California politics. This one is the Governor's race and it is a discussion between the once-upon-a-time governor and erstwhile Mayor of that urban paradise Oakland, and a local radio station reporter. He is asked about the campaign coming against successful business enterpreneur, Meg Whitman, who has garnered the Republican nomination.

National Socialist Propaganda Minister Comparisons Useful

Now, maybe I'm biased, but a throw-away comment about a hairdo seems like small kartoffeln compared to an accusation of similarities to a Nazi functionary. Joe Goebbels was not a role-model and to liken a candidate for governor to the infamous propagandist seems a bit crude. If nothing else it is a not-at-all veiled statement that your opponent is a professional liar. Either one is grounds for affront.

Any outrage there? Apparently not. You see the difference is one faux pas is from a progressive and one is against. That makes all the difference in California.