To whomever may be listening: May I Speak Frankly?
One has to feel for the President. Well, no, I take that back. One obviously doesn't, with the Mad Hatters running all over the country throwing tea parties that blame him for everything from broken oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico to broken families in Kenya. They obviously don't feel for him. But, really, think about it for a moment - he actually wanted the job. And I suppose a lot of people do. Why, I'm not too sure. I mean he's now getting slammed by Mo Rocca for redecorating the Oval Office. Jeeeez.
Even his teabag distractors admit he is a "cerebral" president, though they cast it as a flaw. But, one might question his intellectual "cred" when you realize he still wanted the job even though he knew he was going to inherit two questionable and unpopular wars that were draining the national treasury faster than Paris Hilton on a spending binge. He was also going to get a Congress so petty that they make the folks on Jersey Shore look, well, cute. Republicans and Democrats alike seem to define policy on the basis of vehemently opposing whatever the other holds most dear. We know they started out as lawyers, but you wonder how many of them started out as divorce lawyers?
"I want the Big Isle Potted Orchid!"
"You only want it because I want it!"
"You'll just kill it!"
"You will!"
"You'll send it to a death camp!"
"I'll send you to a death camp!"
"Madam Chairman, I yield my remaining time to the representative from . . . "
What the President, and anyone else seeking public office, needs to realize is that we are living in the age of entitlement politics. No, I don't mean social programs run amok - I mean that the folks making the loudest political noise - and it is mostly noise - are the kids who wouldn't pick up their rooms, who demanded a computer in the bedroom when they were five so they could work on their preschool "homework" and who always blamed the teachers if they got bad grades. Unfortunately, their parents agreed and acquiesced and we got "slacker pols."
The thing that drives me so far away from political issues these days is the unceasing acrimony and truly breathtaking stupidity on display by those "slacker pols" who hold office, are seeking office, attempt to garner huge crowds to oppose those in office on general principles, or blather on endlessly and antisocially via "social media." It is a foregone conclusion that little of import will occur in American politics until the midterm elections are over, because between now and then the "slacker pol wannabees" must demonstrate that they are suitably rabid to appeal to the "lunatic left or right wing fringe" of their party.
Someone who truly sought to bring the calm reason of the middle ground to politics today - anywhere, here, Iran, Israel, France, Columbia, spin the globe - would never be heard. They would not be entertaining enough, they wouldn't be extreme enough, they wouldn't angry enough. They'd be so uncool. They'd be so 20th century. They'd be so missed . . . .
One has to feel for the President. Well, no, I take that back. One obviously doesn't, with the Mad Hatters running all over the country throwing tea parties that blame him for everything from broken oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico to broken families in Kenya. They obviously don't feel for him. But, really, think about it for a moment - he actually wanted the job. And I suppose a lot of people do. Why, I'm not too sure. I mean he's now getting slammed by Mo Rocca for redecorating the Oval Office. Jeeeez.
Even his teabag distractors admit he is a "cerebral" president, though they cast it as a flaw. But, one might question his intellectual "cred" when you realize he still wanted the job even though he knew he was going to inherit two questionable and unpopular wars that were draining the national treasury faster than Paris Hilton on a spending binge. He was also going to get a Congress so petty that they make the folks on Jersey Shore look, well, cute. Republicans and Democrats alike seem to define policy on the basis of vehemently opposing whatever the other holds most dear. We know they started out as lawyers, but you wonder how many of them started out as divorce lawyers?
"I want the Big Isle Potted Orchid!"
"You only want it because I want it!"
"You'll just kill it!"
"You will!"
"You'll send it to a death camp!"
"I'll send you to a death camp!"
"Madam Chairman, I yield my remaining time to the representative from . . . "
What the President, and anyone else seeking public office, needs to realize is that we are living in the age of entitlement politics. No, I don't mean social programs run amok - I mean that the folks making the loudest political noise - and it is mostly noise - are the kids who wouldn't pick up their rooms, who demanded a computer in the bedroom when they were five so they could work on their preschool "homework" and who always blamed the teachers if they got bad grades. Unfortunately, their parents agreed and acquiesced and we got "slacker pols."
The thing that drives me so far away from political issues these days is the unceasing acrimony and truly breathtaking stupidity on display by those "slacker pols" who hold office, are seeking office, attempt to garner huge crowds to oppose those in office on general principles, or blather on endlessly and antisocially via "social media." It is a foregone conclusion that little of import will occur in American politics until the midterm elections are over, because between now and then the "slacker pol wannabees" must demonstrate that they are suitably rabid to appeal to the "lunatic left or right wing fringe" of their party.
Someone who truly sought to bring the calm reason of the middle ground to politics today - anywhere, here, Iran, Israel, France, Columbia, spin the globe - would never be heard. They would not be entertaining enough, they wouldn't be extreme enough, they wouldn't angry enough. They'd be so uncool. They'd be so 20th century. They'd be so missed . . . .
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