Freak Show
P. J. O’Rourke looks forward to the Barnum & Bailey Show that will be the Obama Administration:
Is it too soon to talk about the failed Obama presidency just because Obama isn’t president yet? That depends upon how quickly Barack Obama is able to apply the lessons he’s learned from Management Secrets of the Illinois Governors. So far he’s not doing very well. He has allowed America’s current number one jackleg, crackpot, smut-mouth, slime-licking politician to give the Obama Senate seat to a lovable old African-American doofus whom no one has the heart to execrate. Roland Burris will be the kind of ornament to this year’s Senate that the broken plastic Rudolph with its antlers missing was to last year’s Christmas tree.
Then Obama took Bill Richardson–one of his earliest important supporters and among the smartest, most experienced, and, certainly, most affable of Washington insiders–and put Bill at the Department of Commerce. I will read from the roster at the Secretary of Commerce Hall of Fame, its inductees dating back to the Harding administration:
Norman Mineta
Mickey Kantor
Ron Brown
Robert Mosbacher
Howard Malcolm Baldrige Jr.
Philip Morris Klutznick
Maurice Stans
Henry Wallace
Harry Hopkins
Herbert Hoover…
Come on, Obama, what kind of Democrat are you? I thought Democrats were supposed to be good at this stuff. It’s us Republicans who stink at political corruption.
Some of you may care to debate that last point—then again, given recent news stories, maybe you won’t.
I confess that when I first read the headline about a new circus coming to town, I thought O’Rourke was referring to the inauguration.
Rather, the Coronation.
Over lunch in Cambridge yesterday, I heard people boasting about their plans to attend Obama’s installment. Hearing their fervor, you’d think the election results had been announced with white smoke. I even know people who regret having voted for the other one (as opposed to That One) solely because they feel they are missing out an experience enjoyed by others (like mushrooms or LSD).
It’s only going to get worse over the next few days, as Gwen Ifill’s book and Jonathan Alter’s book approach publication. As the news shows grow ever more intoxicated with the Messiah’s fragrance. As the heavenly chorus announces His coming.
I’ll probably have to miss the event, lying in a dark room with a cool cloth on my head and a bucket beside me, but can someone let me know if he wears a gray suit or something more appropriate to the occasion?
Carol said,
January 11, 2009 @ 12:06 pm
My question is, how long after the coronation are they going to keep sending emails to their minions asking for just one more $5.00 donation, just another $5.00 and we’ll send you a scrap from the veil of a latter-day Veronica whose veil was used to mop the sweat from The One’s brow on his way to the podium for the swearing-in. I swear, their missives read like the ones I used to get from televangelists asking me to send in the vial and $25.00 and I would get the vial back with some miracle annointing oil (Wesson or Crisco, corn or safflower - they were never all that specific).
Bloodthirsty Liberal said,
January 11, 2009 @ 12:44 pm
I’m amazed that no one has pointed out the tackiness of the panhandling, the merchandising, the hagiography. I think I’ve demonstrated one reason: that too many of the media stand to gain from the Selling of the President—and not just the ones with book contracts. Chris Matthews admitted without shame that is is his job to see that this administration succeed. Not his wish, his job. To call him a journalist any longer is an offense to a pretty offensive profession. He is pure entertainment (if you’re into that sort of thing). He might as well strip down to his skivvies and twirl the tassels on his pasties in opposite directions (since I’m into that sort of thing).
God bless YouTube:
Carol said,
January 11, 2009 @ 2:01 pm
Thanks for sharing, but does Aggie know you’re posting video of her while she’s on vacation?
Martino said,
January 12, 2009 @ 10:50 am
Hilarious.