"Betting On a Loser!"

I used to gamble regularly in my younger days; now a gamble for me is deciding whether to have jalapeno peppers on a sandwich. When I was much younger, I played poker, blackjack and a game called “guts”. “Guts” is a three card game with no draw, high hand wins and no limit betting. In this game, you can win a bundle or lose your shirt in very short order. I have won hands with three deuces and lost with three queens; it is all about the “luck of the draw”. I had a friend lose his Oldsmobile Cutlass on the turn of one hand; he wasn’t too cheerful after that. The key to high stakes gambling is always know who you are playing with, strangers spell “unknown” and that can be a warning to BEWARE OF STRANGERS! On the other side of the coin, when you play with “regulars”, you know their habits, or as gamblers say, “their tells”; the signs in their behavior that reveal their hands. Some gamblers may blink, some may lick their lips and some may move their cards from one hand to another when they feel they have a winner, or if they are about to “bluff”. Little habits can be very telling, and profitable if you know what to look for. If you miss a gambler’s “tell”, you could be in for a very long evening, and quite a bit of your dollars could be gone forever!

This November ,America is going to participate in our “national poker game”; you know, the Presidential Election. We have already seen what one of the players is offering, as he has been sitting at the table for nearly four years. He has already gambled away several billion dollars on numerous “bad hands” like SOLYNDRA and several other poor “draws” that have cleaned out quite a bit of America’s bankroll. Most of the “taxplayers” are losing their collective shirts on these “bad hands”. Our current player is asking for another “four year stake” in the “Game of America” and he wants to draw more cards. His “tells” are a consistent blaming of the former “dealer” for his failures, and saying that others at the table should be responsible if he loses any of his hands. He is now in the process of trying to get more “backers” to finance his next game, and he is willing to bend the truth to its breaking point to get another chance at the table.

The new player has already been subject to quite a few “spurious” facts about his style of play in his previous “games”. All of those “facts” have already been shown to be just so much “table talk” and of no value to the “game”. The new player definitely seems to have an edge in the “fact department” as he has been observing his opponent and knows all of his “tells”.

When November arrives, all of America will be sitting at the table, and we need to know all of the “tells” or we will lose our nation for an additional four years. Barack Obama said he is “betting on America”, but oddly, America is taking all the risk. Is Barack Obama worth another bet? Should America “ante up” our Constitution to a man who is willing to throw it away? My fellow Americans, we can’t afford to “back this loser” for another term, or we will leave the table “cleaned out”!!