Sanitized Democracy

One of the more important necessities for a vigilant, responsible populace is to remain suspicious of any aspirations to power  That includes, by definition, all those seeking higher public office. 

We benefit by being reminded of the phoniness of both politicians and their campaign's pizazz.  Thus I loved the implication of this photo I saw several days ago in The New York Times Lens Blog, speaking a thousand words, showing incumbent President Barack Obama receiving hand sanitizer after shaking hands with supporters at a campaign event last month.


photo: Damon Winter/The New York Times. caption: Mr. Obama got a squirt of hand sanitizer from a White House trip adviser Marvin Nicholson after shaking hands and posing for photos with a line of supporters backstage before he spoke at the Cleveland State University. October 5th, 2012

In the spirit of equal-time, I tried hard though in vain to find an analogous picture of Romney to juxtapose aside this one.  I believe he is equally eager to rush for the sanitizer after events.