Pre-Ramble: Peggy Noonan is a great writer, even when she’s wrong. Her piece on yesterday’s WSJ opinion page (A19) describes a now familiar exchange that took place in a town hall meeting in Washington last week…

“A woman stands — handsome, dignified, black, a person with presence… The president looked relieved when she stood. Perhaps he thought she might lob a sympathetic question that would allow him to hit a reply out of the park. Instead, in the nicest way possible, Velma Hart lobbed a hand grenade. 

“I am a mother. I am a wife. I’m an American veteran, and I’m one of your middle-class Americans. And quite frankly I’m exhausted. I’m exhausted of defending you, defending your administration, defending the mantle of change that I voted for, and deeply disappointed with where we are.”

Noonan goes on to dissect the moment, angling her words around the ”disastrous fall” that has become the Obama Presidency. Then she jumps horses a bit and points to the rise of women and new access to good ol’ Washington inside information as major developments that are going to shape election outcomes going forward. The words are saying that women and outsiders will play a new role in American politics, but the subtext is …

“Democrats are going to lose big in the next election because Barack Obama campaign-promised that he would fix things, and he hasn’t.  He is responsible for all of the things that aren’t going well in our country … and in the world, … Watch out because the brave new Tea Party Girls are deeply disappointed and we are going to toss our tea bags into a new cup.”

Let’s be real about this – Republican or Democrat – regardless of which party you’re steeped in, they’re both full of hot water.  The fact is, all kinds of hurt would have been visited upon whoever was sitting in that Oval Office … Barack Obama … John McCain … Hillary Clinton, … heck, even Betty White would be taking a hard right to the chin on the breadth and depth of stuff that’s been going down lately. 

The Take-Away: Like that goofy vintage Milton Bradley game, Time Bomb, this big mess was going to blow; it was just a matter of who was holding the ticking ball when it went off. Sure, we can be “disappointed about where we are,” even deeply, but we can’t hold one man singularly accountable for taking the oath of office moments before the teetering mass of cumulative missteps went KABOOM!!! in our faces.

Post Note: The Time Bomb game was released in 1964 by Milton-Bradley. Based on the schoolyard game of Hot Potato, players would gather in a circle, wind it up and start tossing the ticking ball from person to person. Suddenly, the ball would make a popping sound and whoever was holding it was eliminated from the game.

Time Bomb is hard to find these days, especially in good condition as the premise of the game involved tossing and the product was targeted for kids – human beings with under-developed motor skills. Expect to blow $50-$75 on a clean working example of this toy. (Adapted from description found on the Big Red Toy Box website)

Pre-Ramble:  As if I didn’t love coffee and parties enough already, it appears that there is a political movement afoot that is named after both — The Coffee Party.

The Coffee Party, floating the slogan, “Wake Up and Stand Up,” pledges to “support positive solutions and hold accountable those who obstruct them.” ( … Are you listening Senator Bunning?) Founder Annabel Park clearly articulates the Coffee Party civic participation model,

“The federal government is not the enemy of the people, but rather it is the expression of our collective will … We must participate in the democratic process in order to address the challenges we face …”

Established in response to the sniping, hyper-extended pinkies of the conservative Tea Party movement, the Coffee Party — a notion that has been brewing for a long time — appears to be more about process than a particular political agenda. With Sarah Palin at the head of the table wagging her finger at every Democratic tic that she can find in the cross-hairs, the conservative Tea Party seems to be steeped in the unrequited politics of a failed GOP platform, as much as it is about any kind of meaningful change.

Same old grind – Basically, whether we’re sipping coffee, tea or Kool Aid, nothing is going to get done in Washington, on either side of the aisle, until the folks we’ve elected to get stuff done stop bickering and posturing and titting and tatting and start actually getting stuff done.  … Are you listening, Senator Bunning?  Annabel Parks calls it again,

“We’ve got to send a message to people in Washington that you have to learn how to work together … You have to learn how to talk about issues without acting like you’re in [a face-off]. We need to roll up our sleeves, put our heads together and work it out … that’s the American way of doing this.”

The Take-Away: So, grab a cup o’Joe – it’s time to consider a broader concept of democracy. We need a more balanced, bi-partisan approach to our profoundly stuck, elitist and ineffective political scenario … and, We the People are the ones who need to step it up – individually and collectively, to own both the process and the outcome and do what we can to hold our elected public servants accountable for our agenda.

Pre-Ramble:  So, I guess Sarah Palin had a tea party last week.  I wasn’t invited.  As a registered Independent for the last 25 years, I’m not invited to vote in the primaries either.

Well, so, in our perennially polarized political system, the majority is either swinging way over to the right … or they’re swung way over to the left … and the folks in the middle pretty much get knocked out of the way.  The outcome of this ”pendulum politics” is that nothing of substance ever seems to get done.

Just the ticket – If candidates who want to get elected camp out in the middle (you know who you are) because there are so many votes there, why don’t we formalize that group?  Maybe there’s room in the system for a third party?  … Ya think?

The Take-Away:  I have a great idea … rather than just taking our  lumps, let’s set up a couple rows of folding chairs in the center of The Aisle?  ( … Independent Party on the Aisle!!  Woot!! ) … I’m not sure how many we’ll need …  I want one … and we probably need one for Senator Bayh … and a couple of seats for my neighbors …

Let me know if you want a spot and I’ll toss my coat over it until you get there.