From The Pgh Post Gazette
By Reg Henry

You know what I think is the greatest thing to come out of this presidential campaign season? The fact that Joe Six-Pack and the hockey moms are finally getting the respect they deserve.

We can thank Sarah Palin for that as we can for so much recent amusement, you betcha.

In the vice presidential debate, Ms. Palin challenged hockey moms and Joe Six-Pack to keep Wall Street honest. And why not? It’s not like they are encumbered by special knowledge that would complicate the task.

Joe Six-Pack and I go way back. Heck, he and I are like brothers in hops. I suspect some of you elitists have the impression that good ol’ Joe doesn’t know a thing or two. Excuse me, but Joe probably knows as many as half a dozen things, all of them cranky and negative.

You see, Joe Six-Pack is a man of fixed opinions. He does not like changing his mind because that could involve mental effort and be a distraction while screwing off the bottle caps. When he was in college, Joe majored in beer drinking, so was able to avoid the contagion of thinking, which can lead a young person to become a flip-flopper later in life.

Oftentimes I have seen him holding forth on his sofa or on a bar stool at the Lowest Common Denominator Club. Sometimes his cousins Joey Bagadoughnuts and the Man in the Street are there to hang on his wise words, which, well into the sixth bottle, become a little mangled, as you might expect.

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