Opportunity knocks.
The talented soulstress who gave us 1965' top 5 hit, "The Name Game" would probably rocket back to the top of the charts were she to record a little updated version of her classic, adjusted for what's going on inside the Beltway these here days.
"The Blame Game..........
....let's do Obama........Obama, bama, bo bama, banana fana fo fama, fee fi mo mama, Obama......a little bit with Boehner....Boehner, ainer, bo boehner, banana fana fo fainer, fee fi mo mainer, Boehner...."
and so on.
Pick the applicable recipient of your individual wrath and Shirley away.
The various partisan panel news shows seem to have all settled into a comfortable, and consistent, groove.
The Democrats support Obama and disagree, even dispute, what the Republicans are all about.
The Republicans hate Obama and disdain anyone who doesn't share their hatred.
Liberals would like to see Obama cut a little more slack.
Conservatives would like to see Obama impeached.
Or worse.
Here's a thing, though.
While I do, sincerely, understand, intellectually, the frustration of the Republican party at their inability to make good on their public stated vow to spend the years 2009 through 2016 laser focused on the single goal of thwarting anything and everything that Barack Obama stands for, I have come to realize, through long hours of listening to the Fox News pontificators and thoughtful reflection upon said pontificating, a basic, inevitable truth.
The Republican Party has ,in absolute fairness, no one to blame for all of this but themselves.
And here's a little why to go with the who dun it.
The 2012 presidential election brought to a close the first term of Barack Obama. The country as a whole and Republicans in particular had just spent four years gauging, assessing and judging the good, bad and/or ugly of what Obama had, or had not, accomplished in those four years.
And, reasonable truth be told, it wasn't, to the lion's share of everyday Americans, regardless of party stripe, a whole lotta.
So, as is our national custom, the four year mark rolled around again and the Republican Party had a constitutionally guaranteed opportunity to end their unhappiness and replace Barack Obama with a President who would cure what ailed them and, in their belief system, the country.
And who did the Republican Party offer up as an alternative to the incumbent?
Yet another upper crust, older, white rich guy turned Governor turned presidential candidate who not only spouted the same, old tired upper crust, older, white rich guy manifesto but failed to sell anyone but the hardcore right wing dreamers the same, old tired, upper crust, older, white rich guy manifesto.
Put more sound byte-ishly...
If Barack Obama was the problem, it was clear almost from the outset that Mitt Romney was not the solution.
Now, a year or so into Barack Obama's second term, the right wingers are even more frustrated, even more angry, even more hateful, even more vitriolic, even more, even more, even more than they were before.
And it's their own damn fault.
Because they had a chance, a very good chance, of offering up an honest change.
Not a change from Obama.
A change from the same old, tired, upper crust, older white rich guys they've been offering up for what now seems like a couple of generations.
Memo to the right:
If you really want this country to get behind your candidate, then give us a candidate we can get excited about.
Give us a candidate who speaks to all age groups, all income levels, all ethnicities.
People who don't believe that everything that flows out of Hannity or Limbaugh's mouth is gospel but don't always agree with Matthews or Maddow, either.
People who have both Fox News and MSNBC on their remote favorite buttons and go back and forth to hear, and consider, any and all points of view, looking for any little nugget that shines in the direction of what might be good for their family and their jobs and their lives.
People who don't give a damn about what party a candidate belongs to and just want, desperately want, to have somebody ask for their votes who makes us believe, for the first time in a long, long, long time that they have a fucking clue about what it really means to be a leader, a statesman, a president of all of the people, all of the time.
People like me.
And a lot of people I know.
Bottom line, GOP.
And, while we're at it, this is good for the Democratic gander, too.
Do you want us to swallow what you're offering?
Then, for the love of God, stop trying to feed us the same, stale white bread.
That..is the name of the game.
Let's do different.
"different, ifferent, bo bifferent, banana fanna..."
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