1136 A Promise Kept

1136 A Promise Kept

The other day, Andy Borowitz in the New Yorker Magazine wrote a story about the Republicans “reacting” in advance to President Obama’s State of the Union address.  It was meant as parody, but he pretty much got it right.  It didn’t take much to anticipate what the President would say or how the “loyal” opposition would reply.

So here at the Wessays Mountainside Laboratory and research center we decided to conduct an experiment.  The question:  can a political semi-junkie, a news junkie and a TV junkie completely avoid watching this stuff for the first time in... well, a long time?

We started with a pledge.  No speeches on Tuesday night, no reading of transcripts Wednesday morning.

Contrary to popular belief, conventional wisdom and several forecasts, it was an easy promise to keep and to keep without regret.

What is hard to understand is why there is a “rebuttal.”

Article II section 3 of the constitution says this:  The President “...shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them...”  That’s it.

So why have a rebuttal at all?  Especially one that can be forecast in advance so accurately as to have it pass for a humor column.  Is this an attempt to be “Fair and Balanced?”  Is it because the State of the Union Address (it can be in a note, it doesn’t have to be on TV and it doesn’t have to happen every year) is essentially a campaign speech?

What ever happened to the idea that when a news story breaks reporters then follow it up by seeking reaction from key people with some sway over things.  Or even “persons in the street” where dolts and Einsteins alike get to voice their opinions, display their dolitism and their smartitude.
Oh, wait.  That’s work.  It’s much easier to plunk Marco Rubio or Rand Paul in front of a microphone and let them prattle than it is to question them.  Yeah. That must be it.



Shrapnel:

--Love how deregulation is increasing competition these days.  Everyone’s combining... American Airlines and US Airways, Budweiser and Corona, Berkshire Hathaway and Heinz, Comcast eating the rest of NBC, on and on.  Reminder: these are not mergers -- there hasn’t been a real merger since Chemical Bank and Chase, and even that eventually turned into a buyout -- these are takeovers.


--Soon everything will be one thing, a giant corporation that owns everything.  Then we can change the name of the country to the United State.  Think of the savings and profitability we can achieve by printing one less “s.”

--The body in the Big Bear bungalow has been positively identified as California’s crazy cop-killer cop Christopher Dorner. Thanks to the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Dept we are spared the dreadful drag of a trial that will last forever.  Guns don’t kill people... fires do.


I’m Wes Richards.  My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®
Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com
© WJR 2013