Daddy Demographics

As sometimes happens in election years, the world of snarky bloggers and real news collides. So, a subset of media focused on rumors of Wasilla as the state of Alaska's crystal meth capital and a story of a St. Paul, Minn., dad sentenced because his daughter "shared" his meth with schoolfriends suggests the possibility of a new political group for reporters to hype.

Alaska Governor Palin has made much out of being a "hockey mom" in her run for the American vice presidency, so it is only natural political reporters must — for the sake of balance — search for a male equivalent of a jazzy nom-de-previously-unmonikored-voting-class. In 2004 it was the NASCAR Dads who ruled, in 2000 it was allegedly the year of the soccer moms. In the sillly struggles of new and old media is there any hope this could be the year of the "Meth Dads" as the voting group that will decide the election?

If not, perhaps this could be the year of the "pipe daddies," usually gentlefolk like Deltona, Fla., dad Raul Colon, who are encouraged to take up a pipe and start smacking boys their teen daughters have been sneaking into the house for pre-connubial bliss. Or could all this talk of service actually take hold, leading to this being the year when "band daddies" finally get their turn in the sun as the agenda setters? What other fathering groups are in the running?

Maybe we should start the last few days of the campaign with an election to determine which group of fathers should be the candidate for pundit-validated key demographic group?