Monday,  August 27, 2012 • Vol. 13--No. 043 • 5 of 34 •  Other Editions

Solving the Mystery of Picking a President
by Rev. James L. Snyder

• The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage and I were casually sitting on the back porch enjoying our evening coffee together. Suddenly, the conversation turned to things political. This does not happen very often so at the moment I was a little surprised by this turn of current events.
• My wife does not spend much time keeping up with political news or events. Therefore, I was a little surprised when she made some comments in this area. It began when my wife said, "Why is it every politician running for president insists that Washington is broken and they are just the ones to fix it?"
• Well, she had me there. Most politicians worth their pork barrel payment have the audacity to believe they are political prophets able to see what is wrong with everything in this country, particularly those things in Washington, DC. Not only can they see what is wrong but also they know the exact way to fix it. However, no two solutions are alike.
• They look at the Washington, DC area and view it as a fixer upper. Then they go around the country hammering away with the promise that they can fix it and fix it for good. All these politicians have "fixed" our government for sure, but not in the way they think. It is more along the line of when you take "Lucky" to the veterinarian to have him fixed. The results are the same in both situations.
• Then my wife made this observation. "If these politicians are so all fired up about fixing problems, I would like to show them our plumbing problem."
• Of course, what my good wife does not realize is politicians can only fix hypothetical problems not real ones. And the more hypothetical the more eloquent they are in their speeches about it. Whenever you hear a politician waxing eloquent in his speech you always know you are listening to an airbag.
• It was my turn to astonish my wife.
• "I have solved the mystery of picking the president of the United States," I said rather arrogantly. I was waiting for her response. And I did not have to wait long.
• "You what?"
• Then I laid out for her my scheme for picking the president.
• "It's very simple. People pick a president about the same way they pick their nose."
• I knew from her astonished look I would have to explain what I meant. But it is true, nevertheless, picking a president is like picking your nose.
• The first thing is that nobody gets to select the nose they will have for the rest of

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