I [heart] Obamacare

Ladies and Gentlemen:
The President of Ohio, Manack Banana

When you’re a graduate of Harvard Business School, you have many opportunities to be humbled throughout the rest of your life. Several classmates have made their fortunes many times over and are now writing sagacious blogs about how to be worthy business investors. One classmate’s father ran for president – of the United States, not SECPTA. Sal Khan (Founder of Khan Academy) was in our class for goodness sakes. This guy’s in TV commercials and was on the cover of Fortune! What have you done with the past 10 years, you schlub?

Another of our classmates, who at least still returns our emails (still missing you, Sal!) is running for Congress in California. I bring this up in a (mostly) parenting blog because our kids are really into politics these days. Or at least politics at a 4-year-old level. For example, they both know that the president’s name is Manack Banana, that he lives in the White House, and he is the president of Ohio. He flies around in Air Force one, which is a crumpled up plush doll plane that’s been on the bottom of the toy chest too long. We live in the state of Strongsville, which is part of the United States.

So this classmate is running for congress for the wrong party. Nevertheless, as friends we made a meager donation reflective of our Harvard status – don’t know how much Sal Khan gave, but we donated I think $50.

Big Mistake.

Let me be clear here, if you are ever presented the opportunity to donate to a political campaign, pass. Do not feed the bears. Having given that miniscule donation, I am now bombarded with an average of 5 emails a day with titles like:

Boehner Can’t Believe It!

With breathless text explaining: Boehnercantbelievetheresponsewevegottentothepetitiontooverturntherepublicanbudgetjust13moredonationsbeforenoontomorrowandwellhave200,000donatenowrecommendeddonation$5!!!!!!

Now I even get emails from Nancy Pelosi (shaking my head). Like I said, big mistake.

And the email that caused howls of laughter around our dinner table – I have no idea why I checked this email at the dinner table, but I did – was the one that said for $5 I could get a free bumper sticker saying “I [heart] Obamacare.” The kids absolutely think this is the funniest thing they’ve ever seen, and routinely ask to see that email again. One mention of the word “Obamacare” is now enough to ignite our carload into rapturous laughter.

I think the email’s funny, too, not so much out of any grievance I have with Obamacare, but more at the notion that anyone could [heart] such a thing.

Not that the Dems have the market cornered on this tripe. I have grandparents at the opposite end of the political spectrum, who routinely send me politi-spam bemoaning how school kids don’t sing the Star Spangled Banner anymore and that the democrats want to sell our Bibles to pay for condoms for drug dealers.

So with this constant, competing noise blaring in each ear, I feel I have a unique perspective on this whole political thing. Here are my findings:

1.       John Boehner and Nancy Pelosi are constantly being taken by surprise. Apparently they are not very savvy.

2.       Obamacare is the funniest thing in the world.

So let’s lighten up, people. And whatever you do, do not feed the bears.