The political world is still going on and on about Barack Obama's admission to high school students that he used alcohol and cocaine in his youth. This isn't a new confession, but a detail of the presidential candidate's life he wrote in a memoir published years ago. Smart idea. I'm sure Obama has been planning this run for sometime. Why not get a skeleton out of the closet earlier, so anyone announcing, it as if it is a newly revealed secret, looks like a fool?

I like it. 

But that's not what's going on right now. Bill O'Reilly and those other wacks, who have an entire closet of real nasty secrets from lewd sex to abuse of prescription drugs, are all hot about Barack's candor with the kids.

You see, we're not supposed to share those things with kids. They can't handle it. If they hear someone in a position of authority admit they've done drugs, then watch out, man, those kids are gonna go crazy in a Reefer Madness-meets-Russell Simmons kind of way. 

Critics accuse Obama supporters of clinging to the phrase, "he's only human," in his defense. These same folks say Obama shouldn't hide his cocaine use, but certainly not preach about it. "I used and I regret it." Anything more from their POV doesn't provide a good image for Leader of the Free World material. 

I voted for Bill Clinton. (I'm rolling my eyes right now.) Don't you remember when his marijuana use came up during discussion of Clinton's Sixties Fun Fest? "I tried mar-gee-wana, but I never inhaaaled." I listened, and like others who voted for him, I swallowed hard. I pretended those words were never recorded. But at home, at night, in the privacy of my voting heart, I thought, "Why couldn't he just admit it."

"Yea, I smoked like a chimney back then. We all did. Even little Hillary had a bong stashed in her closet. But we have a child now ... we don't do that no more. And, like, I've got to run Arkansas and stuff. You just can't move forward in this work when you're stoned.'" 

This election season, I'm not going to care about Obama admitting he snorted a little. He told those kids he was wrestling with his identity back then. Now those who understand the demons caused by denying who we are or being put in a box that doesn't fit: Understand a little blow could go a long way in making life seem content (or MJ, or lots and lots of beer - take your pick). 

Ain't that right, Bill? "Ohh, yea Mari," Bill says, his finger pointing right at me, making me feel like I just asked about Monica. "But I never snorted any of that stuff back then."

I'm tired of my World Leader jumping rope to the rhythm of the right. This is no longer a world where presidential candidates are placed on a pedestal. There are hardly any secrets left in this era. No one can pretend to be a Truman or a Kennedy anymore. They're better off admitting they're just like us... human.