Sex, Drugs, and Politicians

You know election season is underway now that the sequel to the 04 Swift Boat book about John Kerry, Obama Nation, has come out- at #1 on the NYT best sellers list no less. The author was on Larry King, you can see the whole thing here. Be warned, if you get near the end you hear Larry King utter the words 'boy buggering'. The show was actually pretty entertaining, it is pretty apparant throughout that both the liberal guest and Larry King himself think the guy is a buffoon.

Particularly ironic is the books drug use speculations. With both sex and drugs, it has been like a political double standard in that in order to keep alive party stereotypes and retain the family values voting bloc- the sex and drugs just get hyped a lot more when it's a democrat that does it than when it is a republican. With the exception of the congressional page incident, and maybe Larry Craig too. But can you imagine if it was a democrat that was molesting teenage boys instead of Mark Foley? Compare the coverage of Spitzer to David Vitter. Who? you might ask....well that is exactly the point. At least John Edwards illegitimate child is legitimate.

The book asks if you should believe that Obama hasnt used drugs since his teens since, after all, people are rarely honest about quitting drug use. It's a good question. I wonder, should we believe Geroge Bush stopped drinking at age 40?

Given John Kerry responses to things like the swift boats and windsurfing was basically 'hey stop making fun of me' it is interesting that now, it looks like times are changing, Obama has put out a 41 page critique of the book, and Kerry has made his very own website about it too.