In Search of...a little of this about that

So it's Sunday, and if it's Sunday it must be politics. I'm back in Nashville, and somehow my DVR only recorded the second half of This Week with George Stephanopoulos...which I didn't think was possible for a DVR to do, but it did. So I missed Joe Biden which is a bummer because at the very least, he is always entertaining.

The roundtable discussion began with talk of Sarah Palin's surprising resignation from the one actual position she was elected to and swore an oath to carry out - being Governor of the state of Alaska. She said that she didn't want to subject Alaskans to that, an altruistic gesture which I'm sure her fellow Alaskans are relieved about...or at least I would be...if I were an Alaskan. Anyway, she seemed far more nervous to me during this press conference than she did throughout the entire presidential campaign and subsequent election. She danced unconvincingly and ambiguously around all different reasons for this sudden and unexpected resignation ranging from not wanting to be a lame duck governor, to her family, to the "grownups" out there that are picking on her family (which I'll get to in a minute), to wanting to serve the public from the outside. I interpreted the last one as her wanting to run for President and spend time campaigning in the lower 48 which she would receive sharp criticism for if she did it while still being Governor of Alaska. She also mentioned overseas travel, which again, if she ran would provide some good B roll for future campaigns. And then there was the basketball analogy. Note to self - sports analogies are always big crowd pleasers. I guess the real reason will eventually become known, but for now it's okey dokey, Madame Governor. We'll catch ya later, you betcha. Quitter.

On other political fronts, it seems our economy is not picking up fast enough for Washington insiders and the media to grant our President his Superman cape. Oh how quickly they turn on you. For goodness sake, give the guy some time. It took George Bush eight years to screw things up this badly. Give the President at least a year to turn something around.

And in case you think I cut the President too much slack because I like him (which I do, but still), I am waiting for him not just to undertake a lot of different initiatives, but to undertake bold ones. The last thing we need is to mess around with healthcare and make no radical changes. And by the way, all the "it's a start" talk in the world about our climate policy isn't going to save this planet, and we will not be around to quibble if we don't make drastic changes now. So having just gotten the magic senatorial number of 60, if the President doesn't knock some heads together and get something significant accomplished, I will not be happy with him. And yes, I still like the guy, but who cares about that if we're all dead? (And I'm actually in a good mood today!)

So just to get back to poor little picked on Bristol Palin and her outraged Mama, let me just say this about that. I agree that the press and late night talk show hosts should lay off the kids and aim their jabs at the ones running because, after all, the children didn't choose that life. They did not decide to run for office, nor did they have any say about being under the scrutiny of the public eye. However, and this is the big "however," the point at which the child is going on national TV doing interviews that they sought out and agreed to do, and the point at which they decided to do a spread themselves in People magazine, that's the point at which they chose to be fair game. So if you want to be a teenage mother preaching abstinence on TV, then you get the backlash. Granted, the hypocrisy of your parents' very public religious views don't help matters when they lie in direct opposition to your actions, but nevertheless, once you go out there publicly on your own, you enter that arena at your own peril. So while I can fully appreciate Sarah Palin's parental outrage, her energy might have been more wisely spent keeping her daughter off national television.

And as a final note, what a tragedy that Steve McNair's poor personal choices robbed football of a great player and his children of a father. This further supports my theory that guns are bad. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we've got a "right" to have them. Tell that to Steve McNair's children.

I think I need to go do some deep breathing and not take handguns, healthcare, and climate change to heart. Where's Tina Fey when I could really use another laugh?!!

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