Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain

When I was younger, I wanted to be a magician, but I never had the patience for the practice nor the eye-hand coordination. I blame my stubby Polish fingers.

But I did enjoy learning the tricks and watching magicians. I knew enough to not be distracted by the shiny coin, because the other hand held the secret. If the Magician created a flash of fire on his right side...I looked toward the left. If the knife was pointing out the front, I looked toward the back. Where there was smoke, there were mirrors.

Wednesday's Presidential Press Conference was one big shiny coin. To his credit, the Obamagician made it work. Concerning the arrest of Professor Gates, I am just like the President of the United States: I wasn't there and I don't have all the facts. Unlike the President, I'm going to hold off on my opinion of that until I do.

I do know when we are being misdirected, though.

The President's Health Care Plan (ObamaCare (tm)) is not doing so well. And what does a politician do when things aren't going their way? They pull out the shiny coin. In this case, the age old topic of Race in America. Instead of the media talking about how ObamaCare is tanking in the public opinion polls (and even with his very own Blue Dog Democrats), the lead story the very next day on the Today show was the President's comments. In fact, the Gates' Arrest story was the lead story for THREE days.

• Bill O'Reilly had it as his talking points on Friday.
• I'm sure Keith Olbermann will name the cops as his "Worser" persons or something.
• Brian Kilmede on FoxNews will declare that Harvard people are a different race than say Yale people (to which Yale alumni will agree)
• Pundits and politicos will all agree that we suddenly need a national dialogue on race.
• Glen Beck will take about 45 minutes to rant about something while wearing lederhosen.
• The posters over at Huffington Post will declare all police racist and demand that we call them peace officers instead (like Canada and the superior Europeans)
• The Daily Show, a comedic cable show where most college students get their news, will poke fun at Dick Cheney just because it can.

The Health Care plan? It's been pushed to a secondary story just ahead of the "Where is Micheal Jackson's Nose mystery".

The President took the downtime that his health care bill wasn't in the spotlight to announce that 1) it was going to be delayed a bit and 2) it may, just may, end up costing middle class Americans a bit more of their money than they expected. (up from ZERO). Meanwhile, Democratic Representatives are being openly laughed at when they attempt to explain how inexpensive free health care is and the President's approval rating fell below 50% for the first time.

Pay no attention folks, be amazed at the wonders over there. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.


If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
We regret that you blew this out of proportion
While these uncalibrated visions did appear
(With apologies to Bill S.)