"....Throwing The Bums Out Effectively Requires Having Something Other Than Bums to Replace Them..."

Old saying.

Be careful not to pick up a snake to kill a stick.

More on that in a minute.

Breaking news.

Michele Bachmann wins the Iowa straw poll.

Everything I read and hear indicates that while winning something is always more fun than losing something, this "victory" is more exciting, meaningful and worthy of analyzing and re-analyzing to the news channel round table crews than it is to any group or groups that will be pulling the lever in November 2012.

Meanwhile, couple of observations from the peanut gallery:

• Bachmann, admittedly, came out on top in the poll.
• Ron Paul, though, was a close enough second to make it a real horse race
• Rick Perry who wasn't even on the ballot got a healthy chunk of write in votes

Those facts taken in account, it occurs to me...

The lion's share of voters in this country (affectionately, if borderline patronizingly, referred to , as a rule, as "the American people) are pretty much fed up with the status quo.

The economy is in the crapper, health care issues bubble at the top of the volcano, our foreign enemies continue to pose a clear and present danger to our way of life and the political parties are too busy bitch slapping each other around the Beltway to notice that Rome is burning (metaphor mixing notwithstanding).

The American people want a change...a real, clean house, no more same old shit change.

And it is just that climate, that atmosphere of frustration and anger and determination to clean that house of the tried and true that provides an opportunity for the untried to make its way to the wheelhouse.

Whether they are, ultimately, the ideal choice to steer the ship or not.

Now, back up four paragraphs and read the lay of the land again (for those unsure as to whether single sentences constitute paragraphs, its the paragraph that begins "the economy is in the crapper...")

And that, friends and neighbors, was, give or take a socio-economic, geo-political factor or two, the way things were....summer and fall....2008.

The climate that provided an opportunity for an untried to make his way to the wheelhouse.

Barack Obama.

Fast forward nigh on four years and here we are again. Pretty much the same bleak house, give or take a socio-economic, geo-political factor or two.

And the opportunity exists for an untried to make his or her way to the wheelhouse.

Whether they are, ultimately, the ideal choice to steer the ship or not.

Michele Bachmann won the Iowa straw poll today.

And the word is that she has the makings of a real crown frenzy generator.

Whether she is, ultimately, the ideal choice to steer the ship or not.

If, as his critics fervently believe, the election of Barack Obama was a mistake of catastrophic proportions, then he should, obviously be replaced.

But not with someone whose main appeal is that they are anyone but.

That would be making the same mistake made four years ago.

And picking up that snake.