Posted on 03/09/2008 12:24:49 PM PDT by vietvet67
In fall 1975 I remember sitting in the Stanford student lounge watching two apparently educated and bright students compare their pet rocks, as the craze spread all over Silicon Valley and then went national. By summer few would admit they had purchased one. Never underestimate the ability of mass wired consumer society to go hysterical.
Something like that happened with the Obama campaign in mid-February, as he became the new generation's pet rock. No one knew what he had done; no one knew what he would do; no one cared whether they knew; all only wanted to be a part of it. It was a sort of self-described "movement" to "change the world," that offered absolution for all sorts of sins, real and imagined, of commission and omission, an atonement for past and present, here and abroad.
And now, as some people wake up from their pet rock purchase, they are seeing they've de facto nominated someone rated about the Senate's most liberal senator based on three years of experience there. The Democrats have boxed them into a situation of running a candidate that has out-sourced all negative attacks to the New York Times, political junkies and columnists, in order to remain above the fray and loyal to the "new" politics of change and hope.
Iraq is quieting not flaring up, even as the Obama rhetoric about it as the "worst" something or other stays fossilized—and his advisors turn to his NAFTA-like two-step of leaking that you really don't quite mean the flight that you've promised on the stump.
Democrats will have to run against a Republican moderate in states like California, Florida, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, and Texas that their candidate lost in the primary, after a nasty fight in which Sen. Clinton finished as the surger. Already commentators on television— long biased in favor of Obama and apparently without embarrassment or recognition of how they sound—explain that Obama will win this or that state because it has a caucus instead of direct voting or has a large African-American electorate—and therefore in contrast he will probably lose a key state like Pennsylvania since it doesn't. And this is passed off apparently as praise of his strength than criticism of his eroding support.
If Hillary twists arms to overturn the Byzantine nominating process, Obama could hardly serve as her VP since he could imagine the sorts of humiliations in store as payback for his upstart campaign. In turn she would suspect that his inexperience would lead to a Carter-like presidency, and therefore would not wish to replay a Mondale in 2012 or 2016.
Sober Democrats are starting to worry, caught between the pet rock of the Obama fad and the hard place of giving the nomination in back-room fashion to Clinton, Inc.— the masters of the much denounced back room.
FR bookmark
Yes, but how do you predict when this Pet Rock fad will end?
The original lasted six months, long enough to make it’s creator a millionaire.
I think this one started after New Hampshire and has a few more months to go.
My pet rock whipped globle warming, bet on it.
This is right on target.
My advice would be to make the pet rock talk issues, especially ones of a foreign policy nature. He’s already peaked.
I had a wild rock, found it in the creek. I kept it in a cage.
After the craze, I let it go.
Well done.
After all: if you love your rock, set it free...
I was only in grade school when the pet rock thing hit. It was gone before I even knew what was going on. As I remember, it was only the teachers that got into it, and they made their own...painted faces and glued googly eyes onto them, and felt to the underside, then used them as paperweights.
Part of the reason why I never got into it was that at that time I already had a rock collection. I had fossils, minerals, all kinds of stuff. It seems like my most prized possession was a dinosoar gizard stone. It was given to me by a college professor that was a friend of my dad’s. I have no idea how someone determines if a rock was actually in a dinosaur’s gizard at one time. The last thing I wanted to do was paint a stupid face on the rocks I had in my collection.
So, how did the inventor make his millions when everyone was making their own pet rocks?
ping... expecially for those of you who remember the Silly 70s. LOL
It was not the rock, it was the clever packaging and instruction booklet that made millions.
You threw your Pet Rock away? Yep. You got tired of feeding and watering it, of singing little songs to it, of tucking it under its little blankee at night.
You should be reported to the S.P.C.P.R. (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Pet Rocks)!
Now, the poor little thing has to fend for itself, exposed to the elements with only others of its own kind to tell its little story of “When the Mean Human Kidnapped Me”.
Dunno, perhaps it was the included Pet Rock Training Manual. But the price was $35 per fool.
What about stones?
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