PLEEZE DON'T THROW ME IN DAT BRIAR PATCH!

WILL DEMOCRATS FALL FOR THE REPUBLICANS' “BR’ER RABBIT STRATEGY?

I know, I know. I PROMISE this will not be a political blog. God knows there are enough of those already. But the subject of my previous entry followed by the events in the days since demands a follow-up. After this let’s move on for awhile.

If you didn’t grow up in the South as I did you may not know about Uncle Remus stories. He was a Negro (the term African-American hadn’t been invented then) slave who told moralistic tales about Br’er Rabbit, Br’er Fox, and Br’er Bear to the white chillin’s (that’s “children” to those who don’t speak old school Ebonics) on the plantation.

In one story Br’er Fox and Br’er Bear finally succeed in catching the wily and elusive Br’er Rabbit. They do it with a Tar Baby of all things, but the inferences there are too treacherous to pursue. They’re about to toss him in the stew pot when Br’er Rabbit persuades them that throwing him in that awful, prickly briar patch would be an even more gruesome fate.

Once they’ve done so Br’er Rabbit pretends to be in agonizing pain, then hoots and hollers as he reminds them that they’ve just returned him to the place where he was born. Curses, foiled again.

Will the Democratic Party be tricked by the same strategy? In offering up Sarah Palin as VP the Republicans tempt their opponents to get off their message of “change” and begin assailing her lack of experience. But this “Death Wish” brand of politics (what if something happens to McCain?) poses an interesting question in response.

What if something doesn’t happen to Obama? By attacking the readiness of the second fiddle on the Republican ticket which, let’s be honest here, comes with job responsibilities we’re never quite sure of, Democrats leave themselves wide open to a counterattack on the abilities of potential President Obama. And most of us have a pretty good idea of what the leader of our country is supposed to do.

Whichever side you favor, Sarah Palin hit a home run Wednesday night in her first official at-bat. If Br’er Barack and Br’er Joe (neither one of those names sound quite right in this context, do they?) get so riled up by her sudden and unexpected ascension that they throw their energies at the Republicans “briar patch”, they may find themselves explaining more than they want to about how a one-term Senator who now “runs” (isn’t that what the campaign manager does?) a staff of maybe 60 people and a budget measured in millions is qualified to oversee the lives of millions of Americans and a national budget of gazillions of dollars.

Well, chillin’s, dat be enuf fo dis blog (not being condescending---that’s really the way those stories were written. No wonder Uncle Remus isn’t often quoted these days!).