and the second in a series of posts about the candidates themselves.
I was going to do Barack Obama next, but a comment Willow made about
Bill Clinton's powerful magnetism made me think John McCain should be next up.
Have you ever watched those cooking shows where superstar chefs create crazy and amazing dishes while you watch? And sometimes they make a dish like "saffron infused squid eyeballs on a bed of whale vomit" and you think, "That sounds repulsive, but everything she makes looks so good, that I wonder how it would taste?"
My husband and I once had the opportunity to taste some dishes made by one of those superstar chefs for one of those shows. And Oh. My. God. I ate things I would never otherwise eat. Things that I normally don't even like. And they were. God! Words can't describe the ecstasy, the pure unbridled pleasure that exploded in my mouth. It was a culinary orgasm. The equivalent of squid eyeballs and whale vomit? Ate it all. Savored it. Dream about it at night to this day. Those chefs are artists, and the things they create are beyond imagination.
So, have you ever met a major politician in real life? Did you know that even the lamest seeming of them drip unbridled charisma, charm and magnetism? They ooze magical hypnotic power from every pore. You can't really appreciate it on TV any more than I could taste the dishes that chef created by watching. I could imagine they tasted good, but I had no idea how good until I was right there experiencing it. The magical power of politicians is like the creative genius of great chefs. You have to be powerful in the ways of the Force to avoid the Jedi mind trick that a seasoned politician can pull on you in real life. And I've discovered that, smart as I think I am, I'm definitely a weak minded fool in the hands of a Jedi master. And believe me, John McCain is a Jedi master.
I met McCain in 2000 when he was campaigning for president and stopped by a place I was working at the time. (All I can say is I'm glad it wasn't Bush who stopped by, because I'm pretty sure if he had, the powerful magnetism he is certain to possess would now have me saying things like, "Oh, but the Iraq War hasn't been that bad, has it?")
When I met McCain, he answered our questions about abortion and education and the economy, and I got the feeling that he and I might disagree on the issues, but if I got in political bed with him, we'd still respect each other in the morning. He seemed reasonable. He seemed thoughtful. He seemed interested in getting to know people, in working with different points of view, in finding compromises. And it didn't (this is the magical power of real life politicians) come across as dishonest acting but as genuine, heartfelt and awe inspiring. Somewhere I have a picture of me hugely smiling with John McCain. I think you can almost see the little stars swimming around my head and cartoon hearts coming out of my eyes.
Ever since that campaign stop eight years ago, I've been a little in love with John McCain. I'm a Democrat (in fact, whenever I take a quiz about my political leanings, I actually come out as a socialist), so it's a forbidden love, but having married a man of another race, forbidden love is not exactly a turn off for me. I keep it secret. McCain is my little pet Republican. He's like a snapping turtle I keep in the basement that would bite the nose right off the fluffy, lovable little pooch upstairs. And (shh!) I love it.
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