My wife and I went out last night to celebrate the birthday of our friend Jon. We met up with him and his fiancee, Stacey, along with our friends Tim and Carl at a local pub. Since I was there, the conversation around the billiards table quickly turned to politics. I had my pocket recorder going just in case the conversation got good.
“So,” I put out to the assembled crowd, “what did you think about all that stuff with Jeremiah Wright?”
I was met with a collection of blank stares. “You know… the church pastor for Obama?”
“What about him?” asked Stacey.
“Well, he said a lot of really controversial things. God damn America… that our government created AIDS to kill off black people..”
“Blacks?” asked Tim. “They cooked up AIDS to kill off the queers.” (This was delivered without a bit of irony. Tim is something of a homophobe.)
“Monkeys.” Said Jon. “The virus came from monkeys in Africa. People were eating them or ****ing them or something. And then people got it.”
“We might have created it and were testing it in Africa” offered Stacey. “We have weapons that use diseases and gas and stuff.”
Carl finally spoke up. “I saw a special on that on TV. About gas weapons they used in World War One. Man, that stuff messes people up.”
“Yeah, that was pretty bad.” I desperately tried to steer the conversation back on track. “But what about this Wright guy? Do you think that will hurt Obama? Will people not vote for him because of that?”
My friends broke down quickly into a display of political acumen to make George Will proud.
“He’s the Democrat, right?”
“No. Hillary Clinton is the Democrat.”
“No, no… they both are. Romney is the Republican.”
This went on for a few more comments before I broke in and tried one last time.
“So… have you all decided who you’re voting for? Does that stuff about Reverend Wright bother you?”
I got two responses of “I don’t vote.” Stacey said she would vote for the Democrats. (Whoever they might prove to be.) The last response was an uncommitted grunt and a pointed change of topic to the Kentucky Derby.
I went home wondering why I bother writing this column.