The staging of Ozzie and Harriet

Sometimes America Wants To Know is sorry that women ever got the vote.

You have to wonder if an all-male electorate would have to sit through this scripted exhibition of family values that passes for a political convention, or if politicians would instead spend their time discussing taxes, wars, trade policy and other things over which the federal government actually has some control.

Too late now.

The people who know how to get candidates elected have culled the pictures in the family album and edited the heart-warming memories, and on Monday night in Denver, Barack and Michelle Obama were on the screen talking about dating and ice cream and tucking their children into bed.

Until Monday they were two Ivy-League lawyers with drive and ambition and somebody to watch the kids.

Now they're Ozzie and Harriet.



Just for the sake of keeping our sanity, let's remember that Ozzie and Harriet were actors. Actors with writers.



Let's also acknowledge that Norman Rockwell's painting of a perfect family having Thanksgiving dinner is probably responsible for more holiday depression than aging and weight gain combined.



Even Grant Wood's iconic painting, American Gothic, is not what it appears to be.



That's Grant Wood's sister on the left. That's his dentist on the right.

American Gothic was exhibited in 1930 in a competition for a three-hundred-dollar prize. Thanks to Grant Wood's artful staging, he won.

And it's been like this ever since.


Copyright 2008

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