THE PRESIDENT SHOPS AT WAL-MART

So I had an epiphany recently.  Not a huge one, mind you, but one that I think is good enough to share with you, gentle reader.  It all started Monday night...

The dear wife and I had the great chance to go to the Cowboys game that night - their third preseason game.  If you ever have the chance to go to a preseason game, I highly recommend it - it's cheaper, less crowded, and you get to see some up-and-coming elements for your team.  The 'Boys left their starters in until the 2nd half, when they were apparently scared off by the halftime performance of Warner Bros' recording star Big & Rich.  So, we decided to head out at the end of the 3rd quarter.

We made the long trek with many other fans who had left the game to the parking lot, got in my car, turned on the key, and I'm quickly rewarded with a half-hearted series of clicks - battery's dead.  I get the joy of walking up to a complete stranger, who happened to be nice enough to help me jump-start the car.  We make it home, and I spend a few minutes on the phone with my Dad and doing some experiments to confirm that the battery is indeed the problem.  (My dear wife believes that this step was completely unnecessary, but we won't get into that argument now.)  Having identified the culprit, I make my way to Wal-Mart at a little after midnight.

And that's when it hits me - shortly after I walk into the concrete box that is America's largest retailer and one of the largest companies in the world.  You know there's going to be a very odd assortment of people, and it reminded me of this study I saw one time that said something like over three-fourths of millionaires shop at Wal-Mart once a week - some surprisingly high number like that.  I've just spent almost half an hour Googling to find it, but here is the best similar citation I could come up with. 

So then that led me to this:  we're all thinking about the upcoming Presidential election, and how we would evaluate which candidate we'll vote for.  Everyone's got their own decision metric, whether it's a detailed platform analysis, pure party-line direction, or your own Magic 8-Ball, and I think I've come up with mine - I want a President that I could imagine seeing after midnight shopping at Wal-Mart.  Take away his title and all the Secret Service agents, and I want a guy that I wouldn't do a double-take at seeing him at Wal-Mart.  Why?  Because I want a man that I somehow intrinsically know is in touch with real people, the kind you don't find at Sipango tasting the cool merlot of the month, but the folks that shop for a family of 4 on a budget at their local Wal-Mart.

Now, I'm not going to get into which candidate I think that is - you've got your own decision to make.  I just think the man we should put in office is the man that has something in touch with real people - like the ones I found while I was looking for a new car battery.

"It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine..."