{"id":422,"date":"2008-10-10T08:56:40","date_gmt":"2008-10-10T08:56:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/conversationswithgod\/2008\/10\/americans-can-tellcant-they.html"},"modified":"2008-10-10T08:56:40","modified_gmt":"2008-10-10T08:56:40","slug":"americans-can-tellcant-they","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/conversationswithgod\/2008\/10\/americans-can-tellcant-they.html","title":{"rendered":"Americans can tell…can’t they?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Garrison Keillor is a syndicated columnist whose writings and work I have admired for a very long time. He has hundreds of thousands of other admirers all around the world.
\nHe wrote a column recently that was passed on to me, and I should like to lift a quote or two from it here. Says Mr. Keillor…
\n“It was dishonest, cynical men who put forward a clueless young woman for
\nnational office, hoping to juice up the ticket, hoping she could skate
\nthrough two months of chaperoned campaigning, but the truth emerges: The
\nlady is talking freely about matters she has never thought about.
\n“The American people have an ear for B.S. They can tell when someone’s mouth is
\nmoving and the clutch is not engaged. When she said, “One thing that
\nAmericans do at this time, also, though, is let’s commit ourselves just
\nevery day, American people, Joe Six-Pack, hockey moms across the nation, I
\nthink we need to band together and say never again. Never will we be
\nexploited and taken advantage of again by those who are managing our money
\nand loaning us these dollars,”<\/em> people smelled gas.
\n“Some Republicans adore her because they are pranksters at heart and love
\nthe consternation of grown-ups. The ne’er-do-well son of the old
\nRepublican family as president, the idea that you increase government
\nrevenue by cutting taxes, the idea that you cut social services and
\nthereby drive the needy into the middle class, the idea that you overthrow
\na dictator with a show of force and achieve democracy at no cost to
\nyourself — one stink bomb after another, and now Governor Palin.
\n“She is a chatty sportscaster who lacks the guile to conceal her vacuity,
\nand she was Mr. McCain’s first major decision as nominee. This troubles
\nindependent voters, and now she is a major drag on his candidacy.
\n“She will get a nice book deal from Regnery and a new career making personal
\nappearances for forty grand a pop, and she’ll become a trivia question,
\n‘What politician claimed foreign-policy expertise based on being able to
\nsee Russia from her house?’ And the rest of us will have to pull ourselves
\nout of the swamp of Republican economics.
\n“Your broker kept saying, “Stay with the portfolio, don’t jump ship,” and
\nyou felt a strong urge to dump the stocks and get into the money market
\nwhere at least you’re not going to lose your shirt, but you didn’t do it
\nand didn’t do it, and now you’re holding a big bag of brown bananas. Me,
\ntoo.
\n“But at least I know enough not to believe desperate people who are
\ntalking trash. Anybody who got whacked last week and still thinks
\nMcCain-Palin is going to lead us out of the swamp and not into a war with
\nIran is beyond persuasion in the English language. They’ll need to lose
\ntheir homes and be out on the street in a cold hard rain before they
\nconnect the dots.”
\nWell now, there is one person who sees things pretty clearly. Let’s hope he’s right about the ability of most Americans to do the same…
\nGarrison Keillor is the author of a new Lake Wobegon novel, “Liberty”
\n(Viking). <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Garrison Keillor is a syndicated columnist whose writings and work I have admired for a very long time. He has hundreds of thousands of other admirers all around the world. He wrote a column recently that was passed on to me, and I should like to lift a quote or two from it here. Says…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,6,5,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-looking-up-close-at-life","category-media","category-news-of-the-day","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nAmericans can tell...can't they? - Conversations with God<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Americans can tell...can't they? - Conversations with God\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Garrison Keillor is a syndicated columnist whose writings and work I have admired for a very long time. He has hundreds of thousands of other admirers all around the world. 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