I owe the Obama re-election campaign $10 X 8

[JaneQPublic]

I decided last week that I'd contribute $10 to the Obama 2012 campaign every time I hear one of my co-workers make an anti-Obama remark. Sadly, my county is one of the redder ones in Maryland, and my professional community is redder still. So, rather than spend my work day having knock-down drag-outs with the dozens of Fox News loving teabaggers I work with, I devised this system where their political commentary pays the Obama campaign.

For the last two weeks, I was up to only $30... until today's staff meeting. The CEO of this (relatively small) company first blamed Obama for the pending rise in employee payroll deductions for health insurance. (My employer has raised these rates every couple of years for the 17 years I've worked there, but now it's time to blame it one president and "Obama Care.")

Then when discussing possible job layoffs actually resulting from the company failing to win its rebid of a long-held contract, the boss once again blamed the situation on Obama and "his rotten economy." And then for good measure he added that if our 401(k) accounts are going down, that's Obama's fault, too. So after he repreated a couple of those claims for emphasis, our CEO's personal tally of five, added to the previous three, brings me to a total thus far of $80.

Besides being a fun way to contribute, this approach has done wonders for my blood pressure in the workplace.