For all of the talk of Obama’s accomplishments, and how he will change the country, there is a part of me that regrets his win.  For a brief moment our nation had the chance to break down a different barrier, another wall of prejudice, and yet we did not.

No, I’m not talking about electing a woman to the Vice Presidency.  Big deal, I think everyone believes that we’re probably going to have a woman president in the next couple of election cycles.  Heck, we could have a Clinton / Palin contest in 2016.  No, I’m talking about a far more difficult barrier.

For the first time in our nation’s history, we were going to have a Stay at Home Dad residing in the Vice President’s mansion.  We were going to break the glass basement as it were.  But this opportunity has been lost to history and who knows when it might come again.

This first came to my attention a few months ago when one of the Republican SAHDs in our group (I know, doesn’t make any sense to me either  - plus he has 4 adopted black kids, a lesbian babysitter, and supports gay marriage.  Why his membership card hasn’t been revoked I’ll never know) jokingly said, “so how exciting is it that Todd Palin might start coming to Dad’s group?”

Initially this seemed silly, but then it occurred to me how right he was.  We were going to have a new stay at home dad in the region, and surely he was going to want to make connections with his fellow SAHDs.

I imagined us meeting at the mall for coffee and sitting around while the kids played.  I’m sure our conversations would go something like this:

ME: “Hey Todd, how’s it going?”

TP: “Not bad, we’re almost unpacked.”

ME: “I know how that is.  We’ve still got pictures we haven’t gotten around to hanging on the wall.”

TP: “Yeah.”

ME: “How are things with the wife?  Still busy?”

TP: “Yeah, she’s been gone a lot, flying to Sarajevo and the country of Africa for meetings.”

ME: “That’s hard.  Sarah had to go to Birmingham for 3 days last week to work on a case.  It’s hard on the kids.”

TP: “Yeah.  How are you doing Dave?”

Dave: “We’re doing all right.  Money’s been tight lately.  My wife keeps going on these shopping sprees and buying more than we can really afford.”

TP: “Tell me about it.”

I think he would fit right in.  I’m sure his problems would be a lot like ours. 

I can easily imagine swinging by the Naval observatory to pick him up on the way to the zoo.  We’d pull in and load the carseats for his son and grandson into my van (we’d probably car pool since I have a zoo membership and parking is expensive).  We’d stroll around the zoo.  He’d talk about working in the Alaskan oil fields and winning a snow mobile race and I’d talk about teaching 3rd grade in Detroit and once renting a jet ski. 

He’d joke about how in Alaska they call polar bears “the other white meat” and I’d joke about how in the real America we call Alaska “that place where they filmed Northern Exposure.”

Good times.

I’m sure there would be some differences.  As the husband of a Vice President, his role would be a lot different than the husband of a lawyer.  Actually, I suppose being a Lawyer is a lot like being vice president, except you have actual responsibilities.

Oh how we would joke around.

Yes, I regret that Todd isn’t going to be here to join our Stay at Home Dad group.  He could bring a lot of attention to the SAHD movement and I’m sure all of it would be positive.  So, if this whole Obama / first black man in office thing doesn’t really work out, maybe we’ll still have a shot at our first SAHD in the white house. 

Our time is coming America, prepare for the revolution.  It will be a revolution in denim with messenger style diaper bags, but a revolution none the less.

Viva La Padre!

(I think that might be like 3 different languages mashed together, but I’m not so sure)