Lucky chips on campaign trail

Guess what, it’s the 21st century, and one of the guys running for president collects good luck charms. From The Swamp:

The Obama campaign plays Las Vegas today, staging another “Change That Works for You” rally.

En route, the presidential candidate was asked what lucky charms work for him.

Curious about items that Obama had fished out of his pocket during a question and answer session with bakery workers in New Mexico on Monday, a reporter asked the senator how many lucky charms he carries with him.

Obama said he cannot carry the complete collection on the road.

“I try to select a number on any given day,” Obama said.

Obama’s lucky poker chip

Lucky charms, huh? I wonder if he has an astrologer working on his schedule.

I know this is probably tongue-in-cheek, but it strikes me as a little goofy. I don’t know that a presidential candidate fishing through his pockets really does it for me. I just picture him pulling out a button, then a bus pass, and finally a rabbit’s foot.

Plus, it’s just so typical of today’s political candidates that he doesn’t have just one lucky charm, he’s got a whole drawer full of them that he can mix and match to suit his constituency of the day. It seems that we’re producing public figures who are passionately committed to not making decisions about anything. Sure, it’s a trivial thing, but doesn’t the minutiae of your daily life say a lot about your character? It’s like Hillary Clinton not being able to give an answer, even a sardonic one, to the legendary question of diamonds or pearls (you’ll have to scroll way, way down to see the original).

I’m not saying that we want political candidates to have rigid, dogmatic personalities, but they should be able to take a public stand on something.

I still think that some sort of poker game should be part of a bigger series of challenges that all candidates have to face, like a drug test, intelligence and reasoning assessment, and detailed, thoughtful responses to a series of policy questions. If we’re going to turn politics into entertainment, can’t it at least be…entertaining?