Bolson on…

The late film actor/comedian W.C. Fields is quoted as once saying, “Anyone who hates children and dogs can’t be all bad.” Clearly Fields never dabbled in politics. In politics we love children. Politicians kissing babies can be traced all the way back to the days of United States President Andrew Jackson. And including your children in your campaign commercials is standard fare for most candidates seeking office.

In an effort to push the Rev. Wright pastor disaster controversy out of the current political news cycle and public spotlight, the Obama camp has apparently reimplemented “Operation Obama Offspring.” Obama’s wife Michelle and daughters Sasha and Malia (ages 6 and 9) were highly visible on the campaign trail in Indiana on Saturday. It was the first time Obama’s darling daughters had been with him on the stump since the Iowa caucuses. Apparently the Obama’s don’t own a dog or goldfish, otherwise we would have been treated to them as well. The soft-sell: Who can dislike a man who has cute kids?

With only 48 hours to go until Indiana voters head to the voting booth–and Obama and Clinton locked into a virtual “dead heat” in the Hoosier state–Obama is clearly manipulating his own children for political gain in his own version of a “kitchen sink” strategy. Depending upon how Tuesday’s election goes, we very well might see the Obama camp trot out Obama’s granny “Mama Sarah” and her pet chickens in the coming days as the fight grows even more intense. It’s either that or Obama is going to need to begin kissing not only babies but kittens in an effort to regain the “love” he had poured upon him by the adoring throngs of largely young white idealists, African-Americans, and the mainstream media only a few short weeks ago.

The problem is, the genie is out of the bottle now. The media as a whole is no longer swooning at the utterance of Obama’s every word and Obama isn’t exactly a shoe-in choice of working class America. So watch for more warm and fuzzy photo ops and definitely more Bush-bashing and linking of McCain to Bush as Obama attempts to get back on track and rise out of the muck and mire of the current Democrat presidential primary process. For that is what resonates best with Obama supporters.

In fact, the typical Obama supporter expects Obama to not only pull himself out of it but to also do the same for them. It would seem that many of them want Obama to follow Psalm 40:2 if elected president: “He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along.”

Isn’t that what Obama has been promising everyone all along? That under an Obama administration the government will take care of everything?

And a little child shall lead them. Or maybe two of them if you’re on the campaign trail in Indiana this weekend.