And speaking of loins . . . some final election thoughts.

With the election Tuesday, pundits are having fun with David Axelrod’s intentional remark that President Obama’s closing argument ‘is coming from his loins.’

“I’ve known him for 20 years . . . I’ve never seen him more exhilarated than he is right now,” Axelrod told reporters traveling with the president in Ohio. “He believes in what he’s doing. He believes in what he’s fighting for.

“You can see in the speech he’s delivering. . . that this is coming from his loins.”

The president’s senior adviser then added with a grin, “I wanted to see if I can get loins in the story.”

But like everyone else, I wondered, “What the . . .?”  This is really T.M.I.

Loins?? Aren’t they supposed to be covered up with a loincloth?

And I must be really tired of this years-long presidential campaign if I’m reduced now to blogging about a presidential loin grenade.

Nonetheless, I will, however, resist parroting the obvious film puns from the likes of the New York Times’ Maureen Dowd who riffed on “The Loin King” or at The Moderate Voice, where Joe Gandelman turned the phrase “Obama is the Loin in Winter.”

O.K., I’m kidding. I’m not resisting. I’ll choose “To Walk with Loins” since there are so many other movie puns too readily at hand — like what about a “Loinheart” or “Secondhand Loins” or as we might say here in Arizona, a “Loin of the Desert”?

Final thoughts.

O.K., so speaking biblically, the President is girding up his loins and arising. But regardless, sometime late on Tuesday night or early on Wednesday morning, we should know as Shakespeare wrote, the fate or destiny springing “from forth the fatal loins of these two foes.”

Happily, though, thereafter civility will finally return and relatives, strangers and ‘friends’ won’t be afflicting the rest of us with their unwelcome opinions whether in person, on social media or by email about the campaign, Romney, Obama or depending on who ends up president, the end of our civilization — with or without the Mayan Calendar.

O.K. that was a joke. I’m not holding my breath about the return of civil discourse whether in Congress, on television or next door.

The partisan divide is enormous. And people will remain really touchy about it, especially after November 6th if their candidate doesn’t win. On Friday, the Los Angeles Times did a timely feature on how “Ohioans talk politics at their own risk” but the same could have been written about the rest of the country.

Around here, for instance, I’ve been surprised at how easily, fearlessly, — even foolishly business owners share their political inclinations at their places of business. Not long ago, even a horse veterinarian we visited had an “Impeach Obama” sign in his window.

The conventional wisdom used to be that the last place to mix politics was with business — but not any more. A coffeehouse owner mentioned in the Times story, for example, admitted to having lost customers because she openly shares her politically liberal views at work.

“I know you’re not supposed to talk about politics if you have a business, but a coffeehouse is supposed to be a place of enlightenment,” she said.

But why risk alienating someone inclined to buy your goods or services? Unfortunately, anymore I think it’s ‘the new normal.’ Business owners over-share their politics and even their religion with customers.

As for myself, I still consider it folly for lawyers to talk politics with clients. But then I may be in the minority among my colleagues. After all, as I’ve noted before, lawyers aren’t necessarily the best models of civil comportment.

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Photo Credits: “Barack Obama vs Mitt Romney in Denver Presidential Debate” by DonkeyHotey, at Flickr via Creative Commons-licensed content requiring attribution; “Fat guy in loincloth” by sjmck, at Flickr via Creative Commons-licensed content for noncommercial use requiring attribution; “Such a Clown,” by *~Dawn~* at Flickr via Creative Commons-licensed content requiring attribution.

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