The Senator's comb-over is carefully arranged but there is a wind blowing and the hair flops over the side of his head opposite to the place where the comb-over is supposed to cover and he keeps patting the errant strands back into place going so far as to clamp his pudgy palm over the top of his head when there is a strong gust, while his voice crackles over the public address system, losing some of its usual resonant quality, the studied earnestness and bonhomie that had worked for him on previous occasions now fail him on this most unfriendly of January days as the wind tears holes in his speech.
The crowd has come here as much to admire his trophy wife, who is almost young enough to be his daughter, as to hear him speak, for the same words had been spoken many times before, and some of the reporters feel they can without too much effort repeat verbatim the main portions of his speech, it's the same old stuff they have been hearing at all the whistle stops these past weeks.
The Senator's wife is beaming and flashing her perfectly photogenic smile at the crowd as the photographers point the long snouts of their telephoto lenses at her flawless features, but there is a touch of restlessness there as the wind whips her blond hair across her baby blue eyes, and the tilt of her head hints that she would much rather be inside in the warmth of the restaurant than out here in the biting cold, never mind the fur collar and long leather coat, why on earth did Joe have to be out here this early anyway, and she didn't even have enough time to put on her make-up properly and God knows she could use a nice espresso doppio maybe even an Irish coffee it is so cotton-pickin' freezing out here.
Oh, yes, and the polls. One day Joe is up, the next day he is down. It's always the polls everyone is concerned about. But don't the experts the so-called pundits know that the people lie when the poll-takers come around with their stupid questions. You can't trust anybody nowadays.
And so what if Joe changes his stand on some of the issues. Everybody has a right to change their mind from time to time, it's only human after all, and what's such a big deal about what Joe said six weeks ago that he denies he ever said, because he was misquoted, it was taken out of context, it's the opponent's camp that is saying all those terrible things about him. They just don't play by the rules, those people. There's this conspiracy that's trying to damage his credibility. They don't know Joe for what he really is – a good man, a fine man, a wonderful husband, all he thinks about every day is what's good for his constituents.
You'd think his constituents would be grateful for all Joe has done for them all these years, in the State capitol and in Washington, working so hard, putting in all those hours, traveling to far-off places like the Virgin Islands and Aruba and Bahamas to try and improve trade relations with those poor people in those developing countries. You'd think they would acknowledge the fine job he has done. But no, not a word of thank you. Not an email, not a letter, not a phone call -- except to complain.
It's enough to make you want to cry.
No comments:
Post a Comment