Plain ‘ol Republican? Or national villain?
It’s 3am. I just got back from my Thursday-night show, enjoying a bowl of Apple-Cinnamon Cheerios in front of the kitchen PC, sobering up more and more by the second (but waiting until I was sure I was sober enough before driving home, thank you very much!). And POTUS, the XM channel I listen to most these days, was all ablaze about Obama’s speech last night.
But not about his speech, per sé.
No, what has the media’s panties in a virtual wad is that Senator Joe Wilson shouted “You Lie!” during Obama’s schpiel about the health care issue facing our nation.
To be fair, I was hoping to watch C-SPAN’s replay of the speech on Friday, hiding in my office trying to recover from my inevitable hangover. But it seems that the kitty is out of the burlap: the most exciting part of the speech is scarcely a a quarter of a second long and is plastered all over the national (and perhaps international) media: I must’ve heard a dozen times, by now, Senator Joe Wilson shout “You Lie!” across the Senate floor at President Obama.
And here’s where I have the big problem.
If you’re a loyal reader of The Corsair Journal, then you know two things about me already: One, I’m a lifelong Democratic Liberal, as is most of my family. Second, I’m all for a national health care system that solves the huge injustices and denials of basic health care services that only American citizens (when seen from the perspective of industrialized nations) seem to suffer, at the hands of the large insurance companies.
What you might not know is the fact that I’m pretty selective as to where I get my news nowadays. I had, until recently, subscribed to only one news outlet–CNN–but decided, rather, that C-SPAN and POTUS on XM Satellite Radio were far more balanced places to obtain my news about this topic than the mainstream news media outlets.
But even POTUS and C-SPAN couldn’t help but over-cover Senator Joe Wilson’s microsceond, off-mic outburst.
You idiots.
To say I’m incredibly disappointed is an understatement. I wasn’t feeling well on Wednesday night and went to bed before Barack Obama’s address; I was hoping to hear all about his talking points on my lengthy commute into work on Thursday. But no: all I got to hear about is that blithering asshole Wilson and his disruption fo the President’s speech and his disrespect for the Presidential office. Even my good buddy Greenacres, himself a lifelong Republican, agrees with me, at least on this one point–and it is from him I learned, many years ago: “You may not respect them man, but you must respect the office.”
I sincerely hope that Wilson is completely ostracized by whatever political circles he once traveled in in Washington, suffering the political equivalent of discomendation from the Klingon Empire, afraid to even be photographed next to a building inside The Beltway lest it crumble to the ground from residual entropic resonance–and not because he is a Republican opposed to heathecare reform (and doubtless firmly in the pocket of some insurance provider), but, rather, with his one microsecond outburst, has managed to draw the national focus away–albeit temporarily (and hopefully briefly)–from what is perhaps the most important political issue of the fledgling century and certainly the defining issue of Obama’s young presidency.
I have yet to hear anything about what Obama had to say Wednesday night.
I still plan to watch Obama’s speech on C-SPAN Friday and struggle to stay awake through it whilst simultaneously trying to keep down my bowl of Apple-Cinnamon Cheerios.
September 11th, 2009 at 10:23 am
Excellent post. I may not agree with you on the health care issues, but what Wilson did was beneath contempt. Respect for the office should have muzzled him, but didn’t.
Regardless of the fact that I don’t believe for a NY minute what Obama said about illegals not being covered (he’s also pushing amnesty, ya know) Wilson’s comment had no place in a formal public forum such as a Congressional Presidential speech. Sure, they do that crap in England all the time during Parliamentary speeches, but this ain’t England. And I don’t give Wilson credit for having enough sense to stage this, in order to hijack attention from the speech itself. He’s just a boor, that’s all.
September 11th, 2009 at 7:13 pm
So it would have been okay had he just booed the President?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBxmEGG71PM
I’m not saying what Senator Wilson did was right, but let’s be fair, *both* sides are bad.
September 12th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
Apparently Joe Wilson was right. They’re going to close the loophole that they previously refused to do. Link
September 14th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
Oh, I never said he wasn’t right about the issue. He just lacks self-control and has no respect for the venue. I know GW got boos from the Dems, but that wasn’t proper, either. I actually find it kind of annoying that there’s applause every 30 seconds. Maybe they should tape the speeches and play them on a giant screen, so at least we at home could hear the whole thing uninterrupted.
September 15th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
Well, after three or four days of Senator Wilson dominating the media, it seems as though he’s won. He’s managed to derail public attention away from the healthcare debate and onto his stupidity. *sigh*
The American people are so easily distracted…