I suppose I would rather speculate on the Oscar winners or "American Idol" finalists or March Madness or Congressional Elections and with the Super Bowl still 11 days off, there seems to be a lull in the prognosis cycle. Soothsayers are actually forecasting the State of the Union this time around. Compared to other events this should be easy to predict.
I predict an absence of substance. To paraphrase Sarah Palin, we will be engulfed in a cloud of rhetoric.
I wrote the two paragraphs above before rushing out the door for mandatory fire safety training. Because of a series of glitches I was unable to get back to a computer until after the completion of the speech. In that time I heard bits and pieces of talk radio pundits trying to predict the content of Obama's speech. The best line was from the usually lackluster Steve Forbes, who said that the word most used in the State of the Union would be "I."
Ahhhh, the State of the Union is now history. We will hash it around for a while but one comment stands out for me. Obama referenced a crisis of trust. That struck a chord. This is not our father's political environment. As rough and tough as politics got in the old days, there was always the assumption of good faith. The assumption that even our political rivals acted in good faith. We just disagreed, that's all.
Somewhere that all changed and I think the change is long term if not permanent. I don't trust the Chicago Machine or Rahm Emmanuel or Senator Burress or David Axelrod or Al Capone or the Associated Press or MSNBC or "The New York Times." And no, I do not trust Barack Hussein Obama. He has surrounded himself with dishonest people and his shtick is inherently dishonest. Trust is not on the horizon.
Someday we might bridge the credibility gap. But not today. To bridge the credibility gap, we need credible people in high places. I, for one, just don't see any.
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