Maybe You Bore Bashar al-Assad To Death, Mr. President

I had some work that had to be done around the house today so I have a clear conscience over missing Obama's long awaited and over-hyped "reframing" speech. A perusal of the evening cable news shows revealed that many of the commentators, anchors, hosts and guests etc-the people who are paid handsomely to watch this stuff-didn't bother to watch it either. Most said that they had watched part of it but then again they have bosses so probably they switched to King of the Hill reruns after the first 5 minutes. In any event it doesn't appear that I missed much. It was 54 minutes of tedium. Even network personalities not friendly to the speaker's point of view usually maintain an air of professional remoteness, essentially reporting a campaign speech as though the were reviewing a movie or analyzing a prize fight. "Dick, Obama comes into this speech after a terrible week, his economy is running at stall speed, his numbers are slipping in the polls, he got his head handed to him in Wisconsin, and the public thinks his friend Anna Wintour looks like an over the hill hooker. What is the first thing he has to do?" "Find a new job." Of course the tuchas lechers will never say anything that might cause their audience to think that they are not enjoying the folly no matter how bad the speech. "How did you see it Martin?" "In many ways I would say he is a man conflicted. Here is a man torn between the duties of his office and his loyalty to his donors. At least that is how this humble anchor sees it, Ed." "Right conflicted. There's a lot of that going around. Damn right, Martin, the President is conflicted. This is like something out of Shakespeare or Mickey Spillane." The point is, reviews of the today's speech all deal with style and even Obama's most loyal on air minions cannot find a half pint of substance in it. I think I'll miss all of his speeches.