Pink Houses and the Ohio Primary

Today are the Ohio and Texas primaries. Obama and Clinton are banging heads.

Don't know anything about Texas. Just what I know from the movies and books. Which means I don't know anything about Texas.

Being an old Ohio boy and knowing that place the way I do, I can't imagine Obama or Clinton winning Ohio in November. That crusty old fucker, McCain, would fit right in there, north, south, center.

But today isn't about November. It's watching to see who those slow-talking, simple folk would choose today: a woman or a black man. Neither would be their first choice, I'll guarantee you that. Their world just keeps getting crazier.

Anyway, I thought John Mellancamp's Pink Houses would be pretty appropriate for today. John Edwards liked it. Not that I'm endorsing anyone here. It's just there are certain singers who embody Ohio. Country. Blue collar. Middle America. Bob Seger comes to mind. Mellancamp's another. Ain't that America. Chevy trucks. All that.


There's a black man with a black cat livin' in a black neighborhood
He's got an interstate runnin' through his front yard
You know he thinks that he's got it so good
And there's a woman in the kitchen cleanin' up the evenin' slop
And he looks at her and says, "Hey darlin', I can remember when
you could stop a clock."

Oh but ain't that America for you and me
Ain't that America somethin' to see baby
Ain't that America home of the free
Little pink houses for you and me

There's a young man in a t-shirt
Listenin' to a rockin' rollin' station
He's got greasy hair, greasy smile
He says, "Lord this must be my destination."
'Cause they told me when I was younger
"Boy you're gonna be president."
But just like everything else those old crazy dreams
Just kinda came and went

Oh but ain't that America for you and me
Ain't that America somethin' to see baby
Ain't that America home of the free
Little pink houses for you and me

Well there's people and more people
What do they know know know
Go to work in some high rise
And vacation down at the Gulf of Mexico
Ooh yeah
And there's winners and there's losers
But they ain't no big deal
'Cause the simple man baby pays for the thrills, the bills,
the pills that kill

Oh but ain't that America for you and me
Ain't that America somethin' to see baby
Ain't that America home of the free
Little pink houses for you and me