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Halftime in America

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This article cross-posted from Capitol Hill Blue

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Clint Eastwood popped up in a Super Bowl ad at halftime Sunday night -- not dispatching bad guys as Dirty Harry or snuffing outlaws in a spaghetti western.

Nope, Clint was shilling for Chrysler Corp., talking about jobs, manufacturing and quality -- traits some say are lost in this nation.

But the ad also spotlighted some other things that are lost in today's America: Hope, resiliency, belief in ourselves and an ability to bounce back from adversity.

Said Clint:

"This country can't be knocked out with one punch, we get right back up again and when we do the world is going to hear the roar of our engines. Yeah. It's halftime America, and our second half is about to begin."

That message struck a chord here at Capitol Hill Blue.

Perhaps it is fitting that in today's world, a message of hope comes from a multi-million dollar television ad from a company that had to be bailed out by the government and uses an entertainment icon as its spokesman.

In a presidential campaign year, shouldn't a message of hope come from at least one of the candidates for the highest office in the land? Shouldn't at least one of the four contenders for the Republican Presidential nomination offer up a believable message of hope or -- lacking that -- can't we at least get some hope from the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue?

Apparently not. Each of the candidates -- Republican and Democrat -- offer scripted platitudes or come across as harbingers of doom.  Hope, like truth, is a lost commodity in politics.

All of the candidates talk about jobs but has one of them come forward with a message that offers any real hope of restoring jobs to the millions of unemployed -- and disenfranchised -- Americans?  Do any of them offer a real plan?

Mitt Romney talks about how he put people back to work in Massachusetts but doesn't really say how he will do it nationwide. Newt Gingrich points the blame at black people, suggesting too many are too lazy to work. Ron Paul is too busy talking doom and gloom and promising to abolish the Federal Reserve and the IRS to offer any real message of hope. Rick Santorum? You can knock on the door to his head but there's nobody home.

Barack Obama issues outrageous claims about jobs he never created or an economy that he lacks the ability to restore.  Talk comes easy to Obama. Leadership -- and the action it generates -- are far more illusive.

So, given these pitiful pretenders to the throne, can we really have hope in our future?

Yes, we believe we can. These comic book candidates can't save America.

Only we can.

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Doug Thompson published his first story and photo at age 11 -- a newspaper article about racism and the Klan in Prince Edward County, VA, in 1958. From that point on, he decided to become a newspaperman and did just that -- reporting news and (more...)
 

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