The Old Coot approves this message

Tis the season. The ELECTION CAMPAIGN season! Is it just starting or is it an endless cycle? At the very least, we get six months of political ads on TV. It started early for me this year. I was in Florida when the Governor announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate. I’d been a snowbird in his state for several months at the time, one of the thousands of old coots who flock to the Sunshine State to seek shelter from northern winters and search for the fountain of youth that Ponce DeLeon claimed lie along the coast, a little south of where we were staying.  

Anyhow, Governor Scott threw his hat in the ring, as they call it, and started an ad campaign in earnest, saturating TV screens across the state. There he was, every hour, every day, decked out in a plaid shirt with rolled-up sleeves and a pair of khakis, telling us he was ready to take on Washington. Where, he claimed, “they” think the voters work for them, but he’ll change that. He’ll go to work for us, thus the “working clothes” costume he’d donned, replacing his usual blue suit and power red tie, the governor costume I’m used to seeing him in. 

At the end of each commercial he signed off with, “I’m Rick Scott and I approve this message.” Duh! If we see him sitting there telling us how he’ll act when he’s in the senate, why in the world, other than in the political world, would anyone not think he approved his very own message?

But, he’s not alone; they all do it, ever since one of them got criticized for a stupid statement in an election campaign ad that came back to haunt him (it was a him) and then pleaded the fifth, “My campaign manager approved the ad, not me. I swear, I never saw it.”

Now, I’m back home and the election season has started here as well. We’ll not only have to endure an onslaught of ads as annoying as those anti-smoking ads, each will conclude with a statement from the candidate, that he or she approves the message. They should be forced to donate $100 to the school district they live in every time they air an ad with that statement, to help educate future voters to recognize duplicity when they see it. That’s my complaint for the week. I approve this message! 

I only hope my copy checker and editor do as well.  

Complaints, comments? Send to mlessler7@gmail.com. Vintage articles can be found at www.oldcootwisdom.blogspot.com.