Before dismissing this as another political rant, please note that no real political views are expressed in this blog. This is just regular-style bitchin'
President Obama addressed Congress this past Tuesday night. Well, kind of. He addressed Congress off and on with countless interruptions of applause and standing ovations, and general unnecessary fanfare. The address was supposed to start at 9:00. At that point Obama's cabinet was introduced, and they emerged as if they had just won the World Series, and this was their parade. Waves, hugs, kisses, laughs, banter...everything. After about 5 minutes of what should have taken 20 seconds, President Barrack Obama was introduced, and you would have thought it was the second coming of Christ. I believe he shook hands with every individual member of Congress, and in addition, had some comment or another for everyone he encountered on his journey to the podium. I say journey, because this was no stroll...this wasn't a simple walk to the podium. In an uncrowded room, this walk would likely be about 7 seconds. With "traffic", I'm going to put the travel time around 20 seconds. His walk, with all of its stops along the way and treks off the path took somewhere in the neighborhood of 17 minutes. This is ridiculous. It doesn't take me 17 minutes to wake up, get dressed, get in my car, drive to work, and start this blog!
Okay, he finally made it up to the podium...it was time to get started. "Madam Speaker..." (standing ovation). "I have come here to..." (standing ovation). Really? Now, I'm not a dummy. I know that this has been the status quo for some time. From Bush, back to Clinton, back to Bush Sr., back to Reagan, presidents' addresses to congress have been nothing more than a waste of time, interrupted by countless rounds of applause and standing ovations. This time was supposed to be different, though. If what the government has been telling us is right...if what the media has been telling us - that our economy is in shambles, and we're just a few bad home loans away from being a third-world country - is accurate, then damn it, there's no time for applause! Come in, run to the podium, jump up and say "This is what we need to do...this is what we have already begun doing...this is what we plan on starting tomorrow".
Look, this isn't a knock on Obama. I'm still hoping for the absolute best out of his presidency. I really do think he can get some great things done. It just seems ridiculous that these yahoos (meaning everyone in the room that night) are the ones that are actually running our country! It took them about an hour to deliver to the citizens of America a speech that - after removing all the applause and fanfare - was probably actually about 20 minutes.
How's that for efficiency?
