A Little McCain/Palin Inspired Poetry...

You're gonna love these. But first, some backstory:

I got a phone call about a couple weeks back from my 98 year old great aunt, Virginia Paris Campbell. "Jinj," as we in the family know her, is a lifelong Republican who's become so disenchanted with the Neo-con takeover of the party that she changed her party affiliation to Democrat this past spring so that she could vote for Obama in the Oregon primary.

Allow me to reiterate that: 98 years old. Lifelong Republican. Changed her party affiliation and is now an ardent Obama supporter!!! Her husband, my great uncle Herald, is also a lifelong Republican (and served for a number of years as mayor of Lake Oswego - an affluent suburb of Portland, for those of you not familiar with the area - where the two have lived, and raised three daughters, since leaving Portland's Irvington neighborhood in 1946). Now Jinj and Herald, it should be noted, were liberal Republicans. Yes, there is such a thing, and it's a tradition particular to Oregon politics, more or less what we now know as "Libertarians." Think Mark Hatfield, Tom McCall, etc... But they were dedicated Republicans nonetheless, so for Jinj to take that kind of a bold step is really something in my book.

You'll notice from the photo above, by the way, that Jinj's left hand is abnormally large. This unusual trait, passed down through the Paris family for generations, earned Jinj in her youth the nickname of "Lefty." Oh, and speaking of photos, here's a composite of two of Jinj and Herald that I dug up on Reed College's online archive (both of them, like my grandmother Emilie - Jinj's little sister - are alumni of the school):


Jinj looks a little Bjork-like in that photo, wouldn't you say? She always was ahead of her time...

At any rate, the reason for Jinj's phone call, and the reason for this post, is that in recent weeks she's been spending her time writing limericks about John McCain and Sarah Palin. LOTS of limericks. She's apparently cranking out five or six of these a day, and wanted to know if I'd post a few of them on my blog. Why she doesn't just set up her own blog I can't quite figure - Lord knows she could do it - but of course this was a request that I couldn't refuse. So I've picked out a few of my favorites to share. Enjoy:

As Republican I am appalled
By the cynical pandering, bald,
Of McCain in his pick,
A bootlicking trick;
If he could be, he should be recalled.

Well, we’re hearing the “maverick” refrain
In the young woman picked by McCain,
Right out of his hat,
A circumstance that,
Underlines his bad judgment again.

She’s smack in the media spot
And admiringly touted as “hot”
But she hasn’t yet felt
The polar ice melt
And she claims global warming is not.

A pit bull with lipstick is she.
A bull dog unmuzzled is he.
Their kind of campaign
All teeth and no brain,
Is one I’m disgusted to see.

Copyright Virginia P. Campbell

Yes, you read that right, she even made reference to Palin's "hotness." Jinj is so much younger than her 98 years... And yeah, I was kidding about her left hand. That photo was obviously taken with a very wide angle lens. Anyway, hope you enjoyed these, and feel free to pass them along (just make sure to include the copyright when you do).