Pro-choice party favors

Swag is not in short supply at political conventions. There are giveaways everywhere you look with someone's logo on them. Pens, water bottles, keychains, you name it. In all my years covering conventions I have never seen a giveaway quite like the one I saw at a delegation breakfast I attended.

The pro-choice group NARAL had a table by the door and they were handing out cans that were about the size and shape of a tennis ball can. Printed on the side it said, "Yes We CAN!" The terrible pun wasn't lost on me. What was lost on me was the thought behind this marketing idea. I thought from the look of the can that it contained springy snakes that would pop out (I've been in a few novelty stores in my time.) Instead there was a pro-choice game booklet inside, pro-choice buttons and a pro-choice beer bottle opener. I am not making this up. Inside the "fun games" booklet there were crosswords, jumbles, a connect-the-dot game and a maze where you had to find your way out of John McCain's reproductive policies.

Look, I am totally in favor of a woman's right to choose, but when is anything that has to do with abortion fun? And what were they thinking with that bottle opener. Do they think a pregnant woman is saying to herself, "Hmmm, this is probably the most personal, serious and emotional decision about my body I will ever have to make ... it's Miller time!" What's next, yo-yos against the death penalty? I understand using bumper stickers and buttons to point out where you stand on an issue. But I will stick with my Homer Simpson beer bottle opener that plays a recording of Homer saying, "mmm ... beeeer!" when you use it. That seems far more appropriate than one promoting reproductive freedom.