our dragon slayer is paid for my other means

Perspective for your consideration …What does it look like when it’s fixed…?

Our dragon-slayer is paid for by other means …

As I toyed with the first letter of the last name of each of the four individuals prancing about the nation each hopefully creating a positive myth and mirage about them to solicit us to elect their team to the highest office of leadership for our nation I discovered with the assistance of the internet the following:
Acronym… Definition
 PBOM…Paid by other means
 PBOM…Priced Bill of Material
 PBOM…Preliminary Bill of Materials
 PBOM…Performance Budgeting Operations Manual

I must confess I chuckled a bit at how plausible these acronyms are to these candidates. On second thought they are plausible and applicable to most politicians running for office. The one acronym which jumped out as demonstrably applicable to anyone competing for the office of president today is … paid by other means … Do “we” really choose to believe that to fund the war chest needed to campaign almost daily for over a year that deals and promises are not made which the victor is obligated to repay.

We appear to have the need to initially place our mythical “dragon-slayer” on a pedestal, forgetting they, like us, have feet of clay. Then in stealth mode we delight as they are summarily knocked from that prodigiously high realm upon which we chose to place them.

For Presidential election 2008 we are genuinely blessed to have candidates whose peccadilloes cover the water front offering more than sufficient tantalizing fodder for our nightly enjoyment we passively accept as bona-fide news. Couple their alleged peccadilloes with their individual diversity and a plethora of options open for our voyeur enjoyment. We have the “race” issue which can be played both overtly as well as covertly, then there’s the sex issue, male, female, abortion, no abortion, reproductive rights, who is the better more sincere patriot, who is the better advocate for guns, who is for gun-control, who can promise us the greatest health and environmental benefits without there being the need for a substantive change in the way we live, who is a “pork-barrel-advocate,” who is the more noble “greener” environmentalist, who is the best ______ and you fill in the blank…?

Against this backdrop and barrage of 24/7 “noise” bombardment upon what do we rely for guidance to determine what, is the truth…? For the last nearly 8 years, we have been skillfully lead down a path of fear. The prevailing American peccadillo is “you” tell us what to do as, individually; we are incapable of thinking or acting in our own accord.

It strikes me the “boys-in-the-back-rooms” contemplate how to extract the most minute advantage from the most scintillating disclosure of the day and make sure it’s lead story on today’s 6 PM National TV news. Just make damn sure it is damaging to them, our enemy - the other camp. And remember we only have 30 seconds to get the mullet’s (that’s you and me) attention so make sure there’s color, sound effects, drama and all that. Don’t be concerned about facts we can CYA that later, just make sure we punch them in the gut hard and fast.
The name of this game is getting us to bob and wave every day and every time any candidate shows his face, but especially getting us to bob and weave when the enemy’s face appears anywhere. Get us sufficiently shell shocked about what “they” (the enemy) allegedly will do, so that you and I immediately see red, get angry and find fault with them. Can’t trust them you know, they lie about everything. Now my man is as pure and clean as a new borne babe and you can believe that.

The 2008 Presidential contest can be likened to Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, discovering when she took the chance and risked looking behind the curtain, the wizard is nothing more than a rather pathetic little man whose voice and mannerisms are enhanced artificially projecting him to be far, far greater and menacing than he truly is. In the moment the wizards of Presidential PR are holding us all hostages to their slight of hand. We wait to see if a Dorothy arrives on the scene with guts enough to pull the curtain back and expose the underbelly of this travesty.

Then might the question truly be … do “we” honestly want to see the truth about our candidate of choice…? Or are “we” quite content to allow the PR wizards to manipulate words, circumstances, situations, to present the best “face” they can for their man as we, through our education obediently profess we are not aware…?