Finish Hard

We’re down to it south of the 49th and depending on which media spinning outlet you care to listen to, the results are all but counted.

The general call is for Obama to take the big chair, but only just.  McCain, Palin and the Republican National Committee are working the states up for grabs with a fervour only the desperate can muster.  McCain knows his campaign has cratered, especially since Sarah Palin has opened her mouth for anything more than food or lipstick.  The RNC power mongers no longer refer to McCain or Palin as mavericks destined to shake up DC:  They know better. 

What is looking very likely is the RNC will do what is called ‘finish hard’:  It’s a wrestling term.  Greco-Roman Wrestling is real, competitive wrestling, like at the Olympics, not the theatrical wrestling you might watch on the wireless picture device. 

Finish Hard means you’ve already lost on points, but you are going to punish your opponent mercilessly so they remember the match and will not forget the damage you’ve inflicted.  To that end, to finish hard means reduce their ears to red flaps of flesh, ‘inadvertently’ knee their balls into their abdomen, stick a finger in their eye, then try to dislocate a shoulder, or at least a couple of fingers.  You want to make sure the opponent is pulling their singlet and associated lint and threads out of bodily orifices for the next six months. 

That’s what is known as Finish Hard.  It is patently illegal in competitive wrestling, but since the referee can’t see everything all the time, it happens all the time.

About the only nasty trick the RNC hasn’t gone for is calling up The Base and letting it slip that Obama’s inauguration will see Obama swear the Oath of Office on the Qur’an, then run into Pennsylvania Avenue screaming “Where’s all the white women!” 

However, I do expect that rumour to come out on Monday via such sludge monkeys as Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reily and a Robo-call phone bank run by the American Heritage Institute.  That kind of action is to be expected from the mouth-breathers.  All the Obama camp has to do is ignore it. 

Unfortunately, there is a component of the right wing that also considers it a done deal that Barack Obama won’t even make it to January 20th 2009 for the Oath of Office.  That speaks to a very disturbing component of the American Psyche that America has to examine. 

In looking at the calendar in front of me, I see that it is November 1st and the year is 2008.  It isn’t 1963.  Trust me, it is perfectly fine for Barack Obama to be President of the United States.  The world will not end.  Toast will still be available on November 5th.  So will the banks, grocery stores, gas stations, bad morning radio and shirts with an inadvertent ink stain on the pocket.  Life will go on. 

Hopefully those who ascribe to the mouth-breathing, racist and violent perspective will climb back under their respective rocks, being deliberately shunned by “Real” Americans who will not tolerate that kind of attitude from a fellow citizen. 

“Real” America isn’t racist.  “Real” America isn’t violent.  “Real” America just wants to move forward and get on with life in a way that is fair for everyone to have a chance. 

That’s all the “Real” Americans want, a fair shot at success in a game that isn’t rigged against them, as it has been for the past several decades under politicians of both parties.

“Real” Americans, if they stop and think for a moment, will vote.  They might even vote for Barack Obama as he’s the candidate who is most likely to give everyone in America, “Real” or not, that chance at the American Dream.