Singled Out

Some people are making a big deal out of the fact that we have a woman and a black man running for president as if they're of substandard stock and had to overcome a disability. Fortunately, there are not many social groups remaining that are implicitly or explicitly ostracized. Some of the groups that I can think of are rednecks, poor people, religious wackos, and single (unmarried) people, because you could make the argument that I qualify for inclusion in all those groups. Of those groups, I'd say the least likely to produce a US president from its membership is the unmarried crowd.

MSN Encarta says that James Buchanan, the 15th U.S. president, is the only unmarried man ever to be elected president. Buchanan was engaged to be married once; however, his fiancée died suddenly after breaking off the engagement, and he remained a bachelor all his life.

Imagine the media circus that would surround a single president today:

"Up next on Entertainment Tonight, is the president making eyes at the ambassador from Cordova?"

The chicks on The View carping, "Is the president wearing that off-the-shoulder number because she's meeting with the Elbonian leader today?"

Ann Curry reading the news that the president kissed the trade secretary hello.

National Enquirer headlines: "Which secret service agent gave the president the code name 'Hot Lips'?" alongside "Boy trapped in refrigerator eats own foot!"

As it is, this is my stance this year, hopefully minus the bad grammar: