Am I just out of touch? I don't watch the news much because it's mostly doom & gloom and I really don't need to see an hour of bad news right before going to bed. Instead I rely on the TV in the bus, a discarded newspaper, my coworkers, or my mate who has his finger on the political pulse of the country (because that's his job).
But it seems to me that the current regime is a lot more of a one-man show than the last gig. Of course maybe that's because the last front man was a bit of a cowboy. He made for great TV, especially Late Night whose writers really loved him, but you also got to see and hear a lot about Cheney, Condy, and the rest of the team.
With the current group I'm seeing a lot of their front man but I hardly ever see anything from Biden or Hillary. I do see Hillary occasionally, but man! What has Biden been doing? Is he back packing through Pakistan trying to find Osama? Where is he? And who else is there? It's almost as if there's nobody on the team but the Big O.
But maybe the ubiquitous "they" like it that way. Maybe Obama is being set up to succeed, or fail, all on his own, which is smart politics if you ask me (and even if you don't).
If it turns out Obama is a success, his team will come out of the wood work and say, "That's our boy!" (Is it racist to use the term "That's our boy!" to refer to our black President, even when "That's my/our boy!" is a well known term of endearment with no racial connotations?)
And if he fails they'll still rear their heads - this time in mock horror - as they exclaim, "You did what?"
They'll either ride his coat tails to victory, or wash their hands of him, and if you've taken the fast track to the top, you really shouldn't be surprised when the ride down the other side is even faster still.
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In a country this big (USA), even if Obama fail, it will not be obvious. FDR failed badly when he tried to deal with the rescission, but no one noticed, today all we hear is how he save the day.
Obama will get a second term for sure, but the good news is congress will not, no matter where they hide.
Yeah, I agree, though I do see what Hilary's been up to, mostly on international news sites like BBC and stuff. I have no idea what Biden or the rest are doing though. Maybe they all decided to be secret agents are stay at home and watch tv..
WoWPanda, I think you're right. While Obama does have his detractors (some rational, some not) I also see many people defending him with "He's only been in office a year! Give him a chance!" So in three years I fully expect to see the same thing. "I know nothing has changed but you can't do anything in one term! Give him a chance!"
Thalian, that is the funny thing about Hillary. Many of the LA Metro buses have the TVs in them now and they'll often show snippets from one or the other various Latino stations. I see more of Hillary there than I do on "American" TV. It's sad that you need to go outside the U.S. to see what our leaders are up to.
I think the media put more attention on the entire Bush team because they were far more interesting, whereas the Obama team is about as exciting as watching 24 consecutive hours of golf.
Cheyney was a loud-mouth, border line dictator, who told reporters to go F#*k themselves. John Ashcroft seemed to thumb his nose at personal privacy more than anyone in US history except maybe J. Edgar Hoover. Colin Powell was interesting because of the lies he told and denied/couldn't remember later-hell, most of the cabinet did that little trick. Karl Rove was crooked enough to write an entire book about. Bottom line is that they were entertaining as hell, and they all had big mouths.
Enter Obama. The fact that the media only follows Hillary and Biden -and they are boring as hell- and practically noone else other than maybe the former "green czar" says that the media considers these people about as controversial as Diet Coke. Now Obama, he is where the action is! He's put his foot in his mouth many times already and seems to be very opinionated, even when he should just STFU- cough cough Henry Louis Gates Jr/Cop fiasco.
Like you, I no longer watch the news, and get my information in small doses to avoid becoming more apathetic than I already am. The banker bailout and subsequent lack of follow up/prosecution of the handful of criminals who brought half the globe to its knees has made me lose hope for any change I can believe in.
I get more out of perusing Karl Denninger's Market Ticker than anything I get out of the broadcast news.
But yes, this does seem to be far more of a one pony show of late. It's higher stakes gambling, for better or worse. What bothers me a bit is rooted in my basic distrust of the government: when they want you to pay attention to one thing, something else may well prove to be far more important.
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