Do we have to do this again?

Pretty early on in the 2000 presidential race, the discussion turned from policy to just about anything but policy. Basically, it was just an opportunity to mock Al Gore for just about everything EXCEPT his policies. The media was a key culprit in this childishness, and as a result, we got debates about Al Gore's clothing, his role in inventing the internet, Love Story being in part based on him, the way he pronounced and repeated "lock box", his facial expressions during the debates, and so on and so on.

The result of this foolishness, of course, was that Al Gore was seen as a clown worthy of derision and George Bush, amazingly, was portrayed as the good 'ol boy manly man Texas rancher who you'd want to "have a beer with," despite his northeastern roots and Ivy League education. And that ridiculous media created narrative had a large part in getting George Bush elected.

And that turned out very well, right?

So, I sort of assumed the media might have learned it's lesson, and we could could get serious about electoral politics. The 2004 came around, and we still had the same foolishness, but this time the majority of it was left to those who had a right: comedians. Yes, John Kerry could be long winded in explaining simple matters, and yes he was married to a ketchup heiress, but I don't remember harped on by the mainstream media as much as Al Gore's clothing choices and facial expressions.

In the meantime, Al Gore's image has been rehabilitated somewhat, mainly because he was right about, oh, everything he ever said. So maybe there is hope that this go around "serious" journalist will focus on issues. We have an unpopular war, a mortgage crisis, the dollar is losing its value, Osama bin Ladin is still out there, Russia seems to be backsliding into authoritarianism, Iran, North Korea, China, I could go on and on.

So with all that, can you imagine how silly it would seem if journalists started wasting space writing about trivial matters like, hmm, let me think of an example....let's say, Hillary Clinton's laugh?

Oh fucking kill me now.



Fucking grow up.