Think For Yourself

It's getting wacky out there on the trail. And the media is getting a little loopy as well. I get my political information from a wide variety of sources. But sometimes, you just need to think for yourself.

Let's take Hillary Clinton's RFK assasination comment. It exploded on to the scene yesterday and has drawn widely varying coverage. Most of it has hued closely to the simple story of a politician making an unfortunate statement, then explaining it. Most articles have described this as 'apologizing'. Which is not really accurate. She never really said she was sorry, but she did put it into context. Close enough, I suppose.

And then there was MSNBC's Keith Olbermann. He tore into Clinton with a 9 minute 'Special Comment' on his 'Countdown' show. The rant featured tears, yelling, and lots of words. But the most impressive part was the fact that he might be the only person outside of Tim Russert who can get a bloc of 9 minutes on national TV without a commercial break. Stunning. As I watched Olbermann's train wreck, a funny thing happened: I could feel myself being influenced by his extreme point of view. Just the way I'm sure Ditto Heads fall under Rush Limbaugh's spell.

I didn't like the feeling.

So I said to myself, "Ok, let's step away from the hype. What do I really think about this?" Well, I think Hillary is guilty of criminally bad taste when she brings up an assassination to underscore a point about the political calender. And because she's referenced this RFK assasination on other occasions, I think she's suffering from PRRD --Post-Rationalization Reality Disorder. This syndrome is commonly found among politicians. It happens when you concoct an air tight rationalization, repeat it ad nauseum, and forget what the words may sound like to those who live in the real world. Having said that, I do not think she's hinting that something terrible could befall Barack Obama so she should hang in, just in case.

You may have a different opinion. Good. Let's just think for ourselves on this one, because it's too easy for the media to run out of control with this.

Here's another one for you. I love Politco.com. But they've just got me all schizoid with this piece on Tuesday, and this one on Wednesday. I mean, I know Politco wants to give all viewpoints a shot but it's making my head spin.

We've seen the articles and talking heads offering up doom and gloom to Obama. But then I see a picture of him standing in front of 75,000 people and common sense makes me think, 'How bad can he be doing?!' I've heard he can't get the Jewish vote, but when he stands in front of a Jewish group and says , "My name Barack comes from the same semitic root as Baruch, which means 'blessed one'," I see an old Jewish couple look at each other and nod their heads approvingly.

The point is, we have to make sure we take in the info and sift through it responsibly. The words and the pictures are out there, let's make them work for us, not on us.

Finally, to a dear reader who asked me about the latest on Karl Rove, I say this: if he can be subpoened and grilled on the Siegelman travesty, we might see a house of cards fall that rivals the Nixon operation. As a gift for your readership, I present you with the letter from Rove's lawyer to John Conyers. Note the words Executive Privelege. Why is it that every Republican administration from Nixon to Reagan to Bush II keeps leaning on that? I thought these were the small government guys.

Stay tuned. It's going to get wackier before it's all said and done.