Teleprompted
My friend Bernie was holding forth in the local java shop. We all like Bernie, but sometimes he gets the bit between his teeth and you can’t slow him down.
“I have to hand it to Obama. He’s managed to turn the office of the Presidency into a whistle stop on the campaign trail.”
“Maybe that’s the way it’s done in Chicago,” someone said.
Bernie laughed derisively. “I don’t think so. Those guys, Axelrod and Emanuel, are running the White House. They probably just want him out of their way . . . so they send him out on Air Force One with his teleprompter in hand to schmooze the folks.”
“He’s a good communicator,” I said.
“When he has the teleprompter.”
“He’s hard to embarrass,” Harry added, as if the thought suddenly occurred to him.
“Boy, you’ve got that right,” Bernie said. “His excuse for the upset in Massachusetts was that he’d not been out enough talking to the “American People”. I ask you, what day in the last year was he not out doing that?”
“When did you climb off his bandwagon, Bernie?” friend Judd asked, with a sly smile pasted across his face.
“I voted for him. You’re right about that, Judd. But I think, like most people, I tend to vote “against” rather than “for”.
“So what did his election accomplish?” Judd said.
“Well . . . for one thing . . . it convinced the Chicago crowd that we’re all as stupid as they thought we were. They think we bought into their whole program, and all they have to do is send Obama out there with his teleprompter to keep charming us to death. I mean you can’t turn on your television without seeing him there playing this role.”
“It got him elected,” I said.
“I know, but it’s starting to turn people off now. Even the Europeans are jumping ship.”
“I thought it was Congress we had to worry about,” Judd said, referring to a previous discussion we’d had with Bernie.”
“You’re right,” Bernie said, “and I thought I was wrong about that too, until I saw that clown Chuck Shumer up there on the podium yesterday. I agree that those guys are still a huge problem. All the more reason we need a working President in the White House.”
“Maybe if he gets rid of Emanuel and Axelrod . . .”
“Ha, that’s unlikely. They found him, they groomed him, they sent him to the Senate, and they steered him into the Presidency. He’s their man . . . not the other way around.”
