Caution - The Clueless Will Be Impaled

The Clueless Will Be Impaled by Wheezy Jefferson

 

An NBC reporting team led by White House Correspondent Chuck Todd tell us they don’t have a clue about what matters to the American people or the state of the nation. In today’s First Read, Todd et al breathlessly proclaim the following (my bold):

Over the next 10 months, the race for the Republican nomination will become the chief political story in America, and that will affect the contours of the general election. We even started seeing it yesterday, with Palin, Pawlenty, and Bachmann taking center stage.

They then explain that Obama has had the whole stage to himself, but now the country will become fixated on the race for the Tea-GOP nomination, because when Palin et ilk take “center stage,” they “become the chief political story in America.”

Good grief.

So, those of you who are concerned that the economy and job creation are stalled with 14-25 million people out of work or underemployed can put that aside, because we’ll all want to focus on what Sarah, Tim and Michele said today. Please don’t worry about whether the Tea-GOP Congress will screw up US credit, restart a recession. And don’t fret they want to punish seniors and cover their own craziness by convincing Joe Biden to slash Medicare and Medicaid over the wishes of 80 percent of the nation.

And forget that the rule of law has collapsed for the ruling class, the richest 1 percent of whom have managed to capture a staggering share of the nation’s wealth while the vast majority of Americans are facing declining wages, wealth and economic security. Where is Giuliani today?

Chuck Todd thinks we need to know whether Sarah is riding her hog or a bus, whether Michele can find Canada on a map or Tim has found the group of Chinese investors to whom he’ll provide a personal guarantee of paying their bond interest first. Let’s not forget to ask Mitt to distinguish again between state versus federal insurance mandates. And of course, no day should go by without checking to see if 5% Newt has managed to say something even more ridiculous or deceitful than the day before. Because that portion of America that likes a circus and cares about this astonishing group of clowns is hanging on their every word.

But back in the reality-based world . . .

I’ll make this simple, Chuck: The most important political story in America is that its government — distressingly like those under assault in a dozen nations across the globe — has become almost entirely unresponsive to the nation’s needs and its citizens’ concerns. It’s become profoundly corrupt, representing only the needs of the richest of the rich and the interests of corporate oligarchs, and uncaring about everyone else. And there’s virtually no check on this accelerating decline in governmental accountability.

Not a single important problem that really matters to most Americans is being addressed, let alone responsibly, in Congress or those Biden meetings. All of the sound and fury in the nation’s capital that Chuck Todd and friends think are “news” is just posturing over things that are not, and never have been, actual problems, let alone crises. And even for those contrived issues, the “solutions” being considered are completely at odds with the wishes of the American people — which is why the discussions are happening behind closed doors.

Why aren’t you standing outside those doors demanding to be let in, Chuck? Do your job.

We could list a dozen more important national and international issues — wars without end, the Euro’s collapse and its implications for our recovery, ignored climate change, a still crushed housing market, an unchallenged crime wave among the nation’s largest banks and mortgage lenders, or even something Chuck might recognize, like really violent storms. How can the government promise thousands of victims it will help them recover, when it’s not willing to pay for warning systems, emergency teams, and critical infrastructure that’s been in decline for decades?

A Presidential candidate might be worth covering if they had anything constructive to say about how the nation responds to the devastating forces of nature, or the rusting of bridges, or falling school building, or how a nation in obvious decline can invest in a different future. But if not, they have noting important to say, and we and the media should ignore them.

While that sinks in, Todd might wonder how it is the D.C. focused media became both oblivious to and complicit in the fact our government has become irresponsible, nutty, mendacious, corrupt, unresponsive and preoccupied with phony issues. Because right now, the Beltway media’s unprofessionalism and lack of diligence are themselves major national issues vastly more important than which Tea-GOPer is in Iowa today.