Keller @ Large: Candidates' Families Not Relevant
BOSTON (CBS) - If there's one thing all of us have in common, even with Yankee fans, it's family, the bedrock of civilization.
So it's no wonder that politicians publicly obsess over family. The political lexicon is a litany of odes to "family values," policies aimed at helping "working families," and claims that we are all part of one big family.
This obsession has rarely been more central to our political life.
We started off this election with the prospect of two major-party nominees drawn from the two families that have dominated our politics for decades, the Bushes and the Clintons.
That party was unexpectedly crashed by yet another self-promoting clan, the Trumps.
And during this week's Republican Convention we're being force-fed a steady diet of Trumps, with more to come Wednesday night and Thursday. The only Trump we haven't been inundated with is ten-year-old Barron, but give it time.
Does all of this family politicking give anyone else pause?
Even here, where the Kennedy family was iconic and adored, Kennedy-fatigue eventually set in. (Young Joe the congressman is an exception because he doesn't make a big deal of it.)
It's nice to see families stick together, and I thought Tiffany Trump did a nice job Tuesday night of humanizing her father a little.
But here's the bottom line – I want to know what a candidate is going to do to improve my family's life, and that of other families in need.
The Trump kids love their father and Chelsea Clinton loves her mother? That's nice.
But it's not really relevant.
And a little bit of candidates pretending that it is goes a long, long way.
Listen to Jon's commentary:
