It's Not What You Know, It's Who...

by Pa Rock
Social Commentator

NBC announced this weekend that they have hired Jenna Bush Hager, one of George W's twin daughters,to do news stories for the Today Show. Apparently the 27-year-old school teacher from Baltimore will do one or two news stories a month, most probably with a focus on education.

And why not? She's young, attractive, and supposedly can string sentences together in a coherent manner - a skill that continuously evaded her father. Of course, Ms. Bush Hager didn't go to journalism school and has nothing that distinguishes her from more than one million other American teachers, many of whom have been working in the field far longer and have a broader understanding of the challenges and issues facing education in this day of shrinking state budgets.

But I say good for Jenna. She reportedly did not go begging for this prestigious gig, but was approached by NBC. Officials with the network were almost too quick to point out that this job was not offered with the prospect of lining up a future interview with her father. The network also said that she will not be doing any political stories - at least for the time being.

Jenna is not the first political child to swing into the limelight on daddy's coattails. Margaret Truman launched a singing career from the White House, and years later used her famous name to get started as a mystery writer. Elliott Roosevelt took a page from Margaret Truman Daniel and wrote a series of mysteries in which his First Lady mother, Eleanor Roosevelt, was the detective. Fun stuff all - except possibly for Margaret's singing!

When Elvis died in 1977, Rolling Stone dispatched a singularly unqualified 19-year-old Caroline Kennedy to Memphis to cover the funeral - and she issued a very professional account of the event. Caroline's cousin, Maria Shriver, took a slower and more professional approach to becoming a journalist. She earned her chops in the broadcast news business by beginning at a local television station in Philadelphia, and then worked her way through the system and eventually became a national correspondent for NBC.

Jenna, do your best and enjoy the privileges that life has heaped upon you. Hiring you was a corporate decision by nameless men and women in business suits who know what is good for America. Don't give a second thought to all of the qualified and talented journalism students who can't find work, or all of the experienced teachers who have a much broader and deeper understanding of education in America than you could possibly comprehend with your rarefied background. It's not your fault that you got a job that should have, by rights, gone to any one of the other thousands of better qualified candidates.

Your new job at NBC speaks well for you - and it says volumes about NBC!

A Year in the Desert

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Last week marked the completion of my first year in Arizona, and although I bitch about the heat, my landlords, and the blankety-blank cable company, it has been a memorable and eventful twelve months.

I expected one of the best things about relocating here from the Midwest would be my proximity to my little grandson, Sebastian, and that would have been the case had he not moved off to Oregon with his parents in February. I did get in some quality time as one of his very first babysitters, allowing Molly and Scott some brief respite from their 24/7 responsibility.

My job has also been a huge plus. I have been fortunate throughout my working life to almost always land in a good work environment, and the Family Advocacy Program at Luke Air Force Base has been all that and then some. I work with wonderful people. Recently I was offered a chance to relocate to Georgia, but turned it down at the last minute primarily because I would have felt awful bailing on my co-workers here in Arizona.

I have been to a couple of plays out here, and have another one booked. I am also going to attend a Coyotes hockey game. I have discovered some great places to eat, and I am starting to become more involved in the community. One of my more memorable outings was to see Barack Obama, Governor Napolitano, and Caroline Kennedy rock the house at a February campaign event in Phoenix. That was an evening that I will never forget.

The Phoenix Airport (Sky Harbor) has only racked up one incident of homicide by staff during the last year, and with that little transgression aside, it is a remarkably easy airport to navigate with direct flights everywhere that I need to go. This past year training has taken me to San Antonio and Washington, DC, and I have made two trips back to the Ozarks by air.

I have also put some travel miles on my little car. I made a trip to Nogales, Mexico, last February, and in August I drove to Tombstone. I also did two road trips to San Diego, with a third planned for November for Molly and Scott's wedding. San Diego is a little over five hours from Goodyear, but there is a lot to see and do along the way - including the famous date shakes at Dateland, and a wonderful souvenir emporium in Gila Bend.

Today my apartment air-conditioning isn't working - again, and my jerk-wad landlords (Palm Valley Luxury Rentals) have retaliated on my refusal to sign another contract by raising my rent - but hey, every cactus rose is surrounded by a few pricks! It's just part of life in the desert.

Janet!

by Pa Rock

I received the Obama email a few days ago telling me that I would be among the very first to know his running mate selection because the much anticipated announcement would be made through emails and text messages to supporters. What I would really like, however, isn't instantaneous knowledge of who the individual is, but rather some input into the selection.

I realize that a straw poll of supporters would not be practical, especially because the Hillary crowd would flex their muscle and he would be stuck with that mess. And it would hardly be fair to limit the process to just those few thousand who have been with him since before his Presidential announcement - of which I am one. So, If Senator Obama can't really find out what his people are thinking without opening a Pandora's box, I feel obliged just to come out and tell him my thoughts on the subject.

Senator, her name is Janet Napolitano and she is the governor of Arizona. Time Magazine named her one of the five best governors in the nation in 2005. When she ran for reelection in 2006 our democratic governor was so astoundingly popular that her yard signs had only one word: "Janet!" She won that election in the red state of Arizona by 16 points! She is a fireball of a politician, and the smartest and most capable governor in the United States - bar none!

You have said, often, that you are looking for a Vice-President who can step into the role of President. Measured by that criteria, you could do no better than Janet. She is an amazing chief executive who has an astounding knowledge of her state and its workings. And, if you are not adverse to having a running mate with high octane campaign skills, she is a barn-burner of a campaigner. Remember when she campaigned with you last February? The crowd in Phoenix, all 18,000 of us, loved the nostalgia of getting to see Caroline Kennedy, and the inspiration that you provided on what America could and should be - but it was Janet who rocked the house!

Senator Obama, turn that tiger loose! Put Janet Napolitano on your ticket, and put Arizona in play!

Obama's Mamas

Barack Obama has had some stellar endorsements within the past few weeks, and surprisingly, at least to me, several have come from Hillary Clinton’s strongest demographic: middle-aged and older white females.

Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg endorsed the Illinois senator a couple of weeks ago in an editorial in the New York Times. She said that she came to that decision after listening to her three teenage children, Rose, Tatianya, and Jack, who felt that Obama offered America the kind of optimistic challenges that their grandfather had put forth in 1960. Kennedy Schlossberg immediately went out on the campaign trail with the candidate adding the luster of her presence to the vitality of his.

Clare McCaskill, Missouri’s newest U.S. Senator and a rising star in her own right, has endorsed Obama and is featured in some of his national television commercials. McCaskill said that she, too, was influenced by the excitement that his campaign instilled in young people, particularly her own daughter.

Governor Janet Napolitano of Arizona climbed on the Obama bandwagon several weeks ago. She helped him campaign in Nevada and Arizona, and has done television commercials for the candidate. Napolitano, a dynamo in her own right, has energized the Obama campaign in the Southwest.

Governor Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas endorsed Obama, a Kansas native. Sebelius is a strong Democratic political figure in the very red state of Kansas. She is also the daughter of a former governor of Ohio, the popular John J. Gilligan.

Three of Bobby Kennedy’s children endorsed Billary, but Mama knows best. Ethel Kennedy, ignoring her wayward offspring, threw her Camelot clout to Barack Obama.

The Governor of California may have cast his lot with John McCain, but California’s First Lady, Maria Shriver Schwarzenegger, a Kennedy cousin, walked onto the stage at an Obama rally this weekend and announced her endorsement of him. Oh, to be a fly on the wall in the California Governor’s Mansion!

And then there are two other endorsements that, while they do not come from the ranks of middle-aged white females, do bear a significant influence on that particular demographic. Oprah, an enthusiastic Obama supporter, is clearly one of the most influential women in the world, and her opinion matters – especially to women.

The second endorsement of note comes from Garrison Keillor, the creator and host of the radio program, A Prairie Home Companion. Keillor’s radio persona is beloved by millions, especially older Americans – of both sexes. His character hails from Lake Woebegone, Minnesota, where “the women are strong, the men are good looking, and the children are above average.” And Keillor’s women are indeed strong, but their hearts (or at least his) belong to Obama.

It must be mentioned that not every notable middle-aged white woman has jumped The Good Ship Billary to endorse Obama. One case in point is the anorexic, hate-mongering hag – Ann Coulter. Coulter has threatened that if John McCain is the Republican nominee, she will campaign for the “more conservative” Hillary Clinton. That should knock Billary down ten or twenty points in the polls!

Go, go! Go, Johnny go!

I'm Fired Up - Ready to Go!

Barack Obama was in town tonight, and he was amazing! As I sit here trying to collect my thoughts of this spectacular event, I am hoarse from shouting and my hands hurt from clapping almost continually for over an hour.

The future President (and after tonight I am certain of that prediction) was accompanied by two very notable women. The first person to speak was Caroline Kennedy, the remaining heir to Camelot, and she talked about how Barack Obama had personally inspired her to become active in this race. She, in turn, introduced Governor Janet Napolitano of Arizona. Napolitano is a barn-burner of a speaker, and she stirred almost as much excitement in her home state crowd as did Obama. Here is my second prediction of this paragraph: Governor Napolitano will be his running mate. Their chemistry bordered on being explosive! Prediction number three: Obama-Napolitano will crush McCain-Huckabee, even in McCain's home state of Arizona!

I've seen some world class political speakers - Nixon, Reagan, George Romney, Nelson Rockefeller, Bush Senior - but all of them pale in comparison to Obama! He was electric, and the crowd of 15,000 or more spent most of the evening on their feet cheering him on. He was exciting. He was all about the future, telling us about our potential for making America great again. He was empowering, he was charismatic, and he was ours for the evening!