Italy's Elections--A Bit Too Cheeky?

There’s something a bit frighteningly familiar about the Italian elections tomorrow. It seems America is everywhere.

- Walter Veltroni lifted Obama’s Yes We Can! and depending on the translator it means the same thing, or We Can Do It! He’s now busy running around with George Clooney, who, the last time I checked, had not become an Italian citizen…

- If you check out Berlusconi’s Party, the Popolo delle Libertà (People of Freedom), you can find a version of their logo with the Statue of Liberty in there. What to expect from a guy who has been using the Bush playbook for the last 8 years? But, does he know that the Statue came from the French? Maybe it’s in honor of France’s new First Lady, the (former) Italian, Carla Bruni - who has recently traded in her Italian passport. Maybe Silvio thinks he can bag a French ex-model if he becomes Prime Minister.

- An affiliated site depicts terrific portrait photos of Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and even Milton Friedman, as if they were acting as advisers in this election.

- And the weirdest part of all was the heated debate about the voting cards in which the symbols were printed far too close too each other. Instead of looking where the X marks the spot (e.g. the intersection), any card with an extraneous mark flowing into another party's symbol will be disqualified. They didn't reprint them (cost: €5M), but I'm sure they would throw most Floridians into a tailspin.

- And the myriad parties of the left, all aggregated even though they supposedly wanted to get rid of this plague upon Italy, are using the famous NBC Peacock to show they’re all birds of a feather.

But while in America we are only inundated with lawn signs on every other house, in Italy, every election season, sidewalks across every city, town and hamlet are plastered with the politicos and their cheeky grins smiling out at us.

And although the photo shots have vastly improved from the mug shots of days of yore, in an age where looks tend to win, I’m not sure this is always a great idea.

Sadly, the (very few) hotties get recognized only for their ‘eye candy’ appeal, instead of what might be their real solutions for resolving Italy’s blight. You'll see one candidate's response to the standard stiffs in suits on poster's around town. Hint: She's running for the Porn Party...hmmmm...I wonder if she'll win??