Hillary Clinton: Closing the humor gap

I have checked out Sec. Clinton's announcement video, and it looks good to me. You have a number these tidy little human stories, all of which are happening in this country right now, and the funniest moment comes when the random homeowner guy chips in that "We're mostly training the dog not to eat the trash." This is followed by the wife's musical laugh and a shot of the dog eating trash. Not only did I giggle, but I liked it that the man is allowed to be funny, even if that upstages the candidate. The whole video is gently mocking, I think, of the other side of the political spectrum. Sec. Clinton comes on and announces for president, and there is an ever-so-slightly wry tone to her voice, which suggests, I think, that her new project is not so different from the ones being pursued by the people in the video. It's new, it's challenging, and it may involve

What is this humor gap I speak of? It's the gap between me and every consequential Republican candidate since Ronald Reagan. There are, of course, 87.5 excellent reasons never to vote for a Republican again, but this video make it jell for me that the Republicans are the most humorless, supercilious, pompous, elitist speechifyers this country has been treated to since Cotton Mather passed to his reward. And I allude to Mather's name deliberately: the Republicans are preaching to an audience of believers, not a batch of prospective voters, and they are preaching the political hellfire that awaits us all if we should vote Democratic. Sorry, guys, but I am not baptized in your religion. I think that politics can do a lot to improve (or endanger) people's lives, but politics cannot save us from hellfire, or climate change either, for that matter. The Republicans best lines always make me feel that if I'm not dragging down $100K a year, they really don't want to talk to me. Well, guys, the feeling is mutual. They are so deadly serious, so unrelentingly grim, that it makes my eyes cross to contemplate their confused maunderings.

But I digress. A campaign that lasts 1 year and seven months is an abomination before the lord of common sense, but if we have to do it, then let us at least have a few laughs along the way. I am reminded of the public service spots Bill and Hillary Clinton made during their failed attempt to get some health care reform in 1993. They were funny as well as serious. Oh, please, I beg of you, Clinton campaign, feel free to be as funny as you want about serious things.