Imagine...a president who can speak in complete sentences

While I can't say I was thrilled with everything we heard President Obama say tonight (and I am still not used to saying that), I could not help but revel in the luxury of having a president whose very presence on screen didn't make me want to start screaming and throwing shoes at the TV, and in the sheer loveliness of having as the leader of this country someone who can speak in complete sentences and doesn't behave like a buffoon.

If you want to point to the buffoon tonight, you have to look at the members of the media who were called on this evening. They still don't get it. They still think they're dealing with George W. Bush, with questions reeking of trivia tinged with condescension. And the biggest offender has to be Chris Matthews, who kicked off the post-game show on MSNBC by praising -- you guessed it -- the media. Yes, old Tweety regarded a question about whether talking about dire consequences is "talking down the economy" and one about the Alex Rodriguez steroid scandal and Chuck Todd's parroting of the right-wing talking point that consumer spending caused all of our problems as being proud moments for the media. Methinks Mr. Todd has been spending too much time on Morning Schmeggegge, and Tweety has just been around Washington too long. Frankly, I give Obama credit for not shooting Todd in the face.

These self-congratulatory assholes who comprise the mainstream media contingency of the Washington Press Corps still don't get it. They don't get that their day is coming to a close. Tonight it was perhaps just Joe Sudbay from Americablog and Sam Stein from HuffPo in the room, but with newspapers failing all over the country, the day of these cocktail weenie-munching Mean Grrlz is waning -- and they are too busy congratulating each other to see it. Americans like this new president. Even if they didn't vote for him, they like him. They want him to succeed. Rush Limbaugh has the luxury of being able to hope for failure, because he gets his $400 million no matter how many Clear Channel workers have to be put on the unemployment line to pay for it. But the rest of us don't have that luxury. The people in Elkhart, Indiana, where Obama visited today, don't have that luxury, not with a 15.3% documented unemployment rate. The auto workers not just in Detroit, but also in Richard Shelby's state, don't have that luxury. The people who are trying to apply for unemployment and finding the servers have crashed don't have that luxury. People in states like California, where the unemployment fund is running dry, don't have that luxury. The people who lined up at a Newark, NJ job fair today in search of jobs for which none of the exhibiting company was hiring don't have that luxury. Only Rush Limbaugh has that luxury.

The one silver lining is that at least so far, most Americans aren't listening to Rush Limbaugh, or wingnut hangers-on like Mara Liasson. They don't care what Barack Obama thinks of a multimillion dollar ballplayer who cheated his way into contention for the home run crown (give the title back to Roger Maris, sayeth I). I'm not convinced they even care about bipartisanship, especially seeing what bipartisanship looks like in the persons of Johsn Boehner and McCain. What they care about is feeding their kids and paying the bills and keeping a roof over their heads. For once we just might be able to give the American people credit for believing their truth-tellin' eyes instead of the horsepuckey they've been fed by right-wing politicians and talk radio hosts for the last thirty years.