I hate to appear as if I’m beating a dead horse, but this just really gets under my skin. To what am I referring? The whole Mitt Romney saying Barack Obama shouldn’t have admitted to smoking pot as a teenager thing. For the life of me, I can’t see why that’s a bad thing. Steve Pasierb, president of Partnership for a Drug-Free America, agrees:

Obama is right on the money. Pasierb says kids are not naive; they know people in high places have experimented with drugs.

“The key is to be honest and to put it the context of saying I did this and it was a dumb choice,” Pasierb said. “Obama talked about how it wasn’t the right thing to do. When he got serious about his life, he left it behind. If he were to lie, I think most kids would know.”

Pasierb says the worst thing to do is feed kids a story they’re not likely to believe. In other words, never tell them that you tried it, but didn’t inhale.

“Most kids are going to see right through that and will ask themselves, ‘How could you know if you didn’t like it if you didn’t inhale?’” Pasierb said. “Clearly not recognizing something when you did it is probably not the best course.”

Pasierb says role models and parents should not be afraid to admit they did the deed.

“Really the truth works best. You owe your kids honesty,” he said. “But you don’t need to tell them every little detail. You don’t have to give them blow by blow.”

I couldn’t agree more! Who would you respect more: someone who lies by ommission, or someone who tells the whole truth? As intelligent adults, and sometimes even more intelligent young people, we are all aware that no one is perfect. I want someone who will admit his faults and mistakes; someone who will own them and be willing to say yes, I did that, and it is something I deeply regret. I don’t want someone who tries to brainwash me into thinking he was the perfect kid, teenager, young adult, and now man who wants to be president! Mitt Romeny, however, disagrees. He says Obama’s remarks were too honest. Too honest?? What is that? Wow. I’ll tell you what, if he thinks that was “too honest”, then what is there about him he’s hiding and will never disclose because it’s “too honest”? Do we really want a president who thinks there is such a thing as being “too honest” when answering questions from the American people?

Hmmm. It sure makes me wonder. Especially now when I read that he is disputing a report that he categorically ruled out appointing a Muslim to a Cabinet position.

Mansoor Ijaz, an American born businessman of Islamic faith, writes in the Christian Science Monitor that at a recent campaign event Romney said assigning a Muslim to his Cabinet would not be “justified” based on their percentage of the population.

“Romney, whose Mormon faith has become the subject of heated debate in Republican caucuses, wants America to be blind to his religious beliefs and judge him on merit instead,” Ijaz writes. “Yet he seems to accept excluding Muslims because of their religion, claiming they’re too much of a minority for a post in high-level policymaking.”

Campaigning in Massachusettes, Romeny denied making such a blanket statement. He said:

“His question was did I need to have a Muslim in my Cabinet to be able to confront radical jihad and would it be important to have a Muslim in my Cabinet,” said Romney, “and I said, ‘No I don’t think you need to have a Muslim in the Cabinet to take on radical jihad any more than during the second world war we needed to have a Japanese American to help us understand the threat that was coming from Japan.

Well, that sounds bad enough as is, but is it really the whole truth? Or did he leave part of it out or change it so as not to appear “too honest”? Maybe he whitewashed that a little bit so we wouldn’t be offended by his wholly truthful answer. I guess we’ll never really know with him ….. will we. (you know, if he doesn’t think he needs a Muslim in his Cabinet because it is a minority religion in America, then perhaps he shouldn’t be our preisdent, since Mormons are a minority religion, too)

Oh, and by the way, I have a little quiz for you which I find quite relevant at the moment:

Question: It is time to elect a new world leader, and your vote counts.
Here are the facts about the three leading candidates:

Candidate A: Associates with crooked politicians, and consults with astrologists. He’s had two mistresses. He also chain smokes and drinks 8 to 10 martinis a day.

Candidate B: He was kicked out of office twice, sleeps until noon, used opium in college and drinks a quart of whisky every evening.

Candidate C: He is a decorated war hero. He’s a vegetarian, doesn’t smoke, drinks an occasional beer and hasn’t had any extramarital affairs.

Which of these candidates would be your choice? Decide before reading any further.

Candidate A is Franklin D. Roosevelt

Candidate B is Winston Churchill

Candidate C is Adolph Hitler

Makes one think, doesn’t it.