By Paul Kent
For the Stafford County Sun
Published: May 7, 2008

Everybody loves an election year. By “everybody,” of course, I mean “political junkies and government workers.” The rest of us could give a fig, since life will continue on as it usually has for the vast majority of America. Gas will still be expensive, food on the table and care for the children will still be the top priorities and our culture will remain more or less the same, regardless of who’s in charge.

But when the wrong person enters the country universe, playing politics can be disastrous.

Take Hillary Clinton. In a recent interview with the Houston Chronicle, Merle Haggard made mention of a song he wrote for her. As an opponent of the war in Iraq, as chronicled in his recent single “America First,” his politics aren’t quite as right-wing as they used to be, though he still supports putting Reagan’s face on Mount Rushmore. So as a token of support, he wrote Clinton a campaign song, “Let’s Put a Woman in Charge.” You can find that song on YouTube, as he won’t ever release it properly.

Why’s that? Oh, no big reason. Just that Hillary kicked the song’s tires in front of him. After playing it on the campaign trail, according to Haggard, “somebody thought they’d best the deal, so they went down to Nashville and asked a bunch of songwriters to write another song called ‘Hillary,’ and see how many of them could come up with a better song. And it hurt my feelings.”

Hillary Clinton hurt Merle Haggard’s feelings, and did so by seeing who could write a better song than Merle Haggard. Frankly, that tells me everything I need to know about Hillary Clinton.

When somebody offers you a gift, you don’t try to see if you can get a better one. You take the gift and you run with it. I mean, this is Merle Haggard. Merle “We Don’t Smoke Marijuana In Muskogee” Haggard writing a song for the wife of Bill “I Didn’t Inhale Marijuana In Muskogee” Clinton.

This isn’t a place for politics, so I’m not telling you who to vote for. In all truth, Hillary Clinton being incredibly disrespectful doesn’t paint a complete picture of who she would be as president. But from the perspective of country music, she might as well have spit on Hank Williams while shaking Carrie Underwood’s hand. Ma’am, I believe you’ve made an error.

Paul Kent hosts Thunder After Dark, 7 p.m. - midnight weekdays and the Saturday Night Special, Saturdays 7 p.m. - midnight on Thunder 104.5 Everything Country and More.