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Politics not always a laughing matter

He’s the stuff of late-night and bathroom comedy, but New York mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner, the former congressman with a penchant for dirty texting, is truly nothing more than a sideshow.

Unless you’re a resident of New York City and he happens to somehow defy convention, the polls and good taste and gets himself elected -then he’s an issue.

And, he’s an issue that is present in some form in every community, every county, every township across the nation.

He’s the candidate nobody can believe is in the race but he’s still there.

He’s the guy with a conviction in his past who runs for office. He’s the guy who has a record of beating his wife or his dog or abusing his farm animals who runs for office. He’s the guy who argues incoherently with his neighbors and every government official, often at public meetings of a government body, who runs for office.

And in America, all of those kinds of guys and more, have the right to run for office if they meet the requirements of the office and the prerequisites for filing candidacy for the ballot.

The fear is, as always, that one of these guys will be elected and the community, the county or the township will have to deal with four years of this guy in office.

And it happens.

The sideshow and the jokes are not much more than an embarrassment, so long as voters are paying attention and do not head to the polls with a like mind to put the joke in office.

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