My Morning Commute Takes A Political Turn

I've been cheerfully ignoring television news lately, and rather enjoying my summertime untroubled by partisan battles. I knew at some level that things had gotten a little crazy lately around disreputable places like cable news networks and Congressional town-hall meetings, but it was a sunny summertime morning on 12-Mile Rd. as I drove in to work, so I really wasn't expecting an episode of Crossfire to break out at 45 mph.

I was just drivin' along with my window down, enjoying the sunshine, when this guy in an SUV started yelling at me. I couldn't make out what he was yelling about at first -- the wind rushing by drowned it out a bit -- but he was pointing at something rather emphatically, and it occurred to me that maybe I had something dangling out of my trunk or a door or something. Heck, maybe my car was on fire ... his yelling sounded that urgent.

"WHAT?" I shouted back at him.

"ARE YOU STILL HAPPY ABOUT OBAMA?!!!" he screamed as he pointed at my rear bumper. It became apparent to me that my "OBAMA '08" bumper sticker was the cause of the commotion.

I must confess, I really hadn't expected a public opinion poll while driving along at 45 mph, but what the heck.

"YES!" I shouted back. (Let's face it, I'm a sucker for a president who says in complete sentences that it's illegal to torture me.)

"WELL, I'M NOT!!! HE'S ..."

Alas, at the moment the traffic shifted a bit, or the truck in front of us downshifted and grew louder. Whatever it was, the noise kinda drowned out his reasoning. I rather got the impresion, however, that the gentleman hasn't been happy about Obama since Nov. 3, 2008. So I'm not really sure why it seemed so urgent to him to express his opinion through an open truck window at 45 mph.

However, I couldn't help but think, "Dude, we're driving forty-five miles an hour on a busy street. If you're going to spend your time yelling at people about their Obama bumper sticker instead of watching the road, you're gonna need some of that public healthcare sooner instead of later." (At the very least, I should think he would favor ensuring that what must surely be his elevated blood pressure isn't classified as a pre-existing condition.)

Really, people, let's all try to be a little less crazy out there, huh?