In Clean Politics, Flesh Is Pressed, Then Sanitized

NY Times ^

[sonsofliberty2000]

Campaigns are filthy. Not only in terms of last-minute smears and dirty tricks. But also as in germs, parasites and all the bacterial unpleasantness that is spread around through so much glad-handing and flesh-pressing.

“You can’t always get to a sink to wash your hands,” said Anne Ryun, wife of Representative Jim Ryun, Republican of Kansas.

Hands would be the untidy appendages that transmit infectious disease.

[sonsofliberty2000]

Interesting.

[goodnesswins]

And, the NY Times and its ilk couldn't survive without all those "germs."

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Think of all the wet sweaty palms you have to clasp, the greasy fists, wondering if they used any soap in the washroom, have they been digging, scratching, rearranging...

I would hate to be a polititan. It takes someone special, someone like Bill Clinton to overlook hygene, to wade through the offal, the spatter and splat of the campaign and to actually enjoy himself.

[Reeses]

Purell is mostly ethanol. I've never heard of someone getting drunk off of it but it seems possible.

Ted Kennedy never gets colds for some reason.

[Screamname]

Mr. Richardson said that if he ran for president, as he is considering, he had no intention of conforming to the norms of his antiseptic peers. “I just won’t use the sanitizer,” he said. “I’ve been offered it, but I’ve turned it down.” This positions Mr. Richardson as the early hygienic maverick of 2008. “I’m not afraid to get my hands dirty,” he said.

There`s a difference between getting your hands dirty and shaking the hand of someone who just used theirs as a wad of toilet paper, which I literally saw someone do once 20 years ago right in a park in broad daylight after taking a dump, I sh*t you not pardon the pun.

[ikka]

Remember Dan Savage and how he went around and licked the doorknobs of whatever Republican campaign he was in the offices of?

[BigFinn]

These Dims probably don't wash their hands after they use the 'facilities' either.

[DonnerT]

I always scratch my a** before shaking hands with a democrat.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Typical NY Times snob elitism

[Phlap]

You know it. He wallows in the s&!t. Standing on Hillary's shoulders of course.

[CedarDave]

It would be difficult to find an entourage that does not have at least one aide packing Purell. Some people find that unseemly in itself. “It’s condescending to the voters,” said Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, a Democrat.

A fervent nonuser of hand sanitizer, Mr. Richardson holds the Guinness Book of World Records mark for shaking the most hands over an eight-hour period (13,392, at the New Mexico State Fair in 2002).

Indeed, what message does it send when politicians, the putative leaders in a government by the people, for the people, feel compelled to wipe off the residues of said people immediately after meeting them?

“The great part about politics is that you’re touching humanity,” Mr. Richardson said. “You’re going to collect bacteria just by existing.”

I wish it was as easy to sanitize NM of Richardson, but not enough of the voters are likely to use the stuff.