Silly Season

Here we are, almost three weeks from the most recent presidential primaries and just over three weeks from the next one, and the MSM is completely and utterly bored.

They no longer have election day video to run or vote totals to analyze, so now they are down to make-work sorts of stories like speculations on possible tickets (Obama/Bloomberg? WTF?!?, McCain/Romney?, Paul/Gravel?, McCain/Rice?), speculations on whether one or another candidate should withdraw from the race (Hillary, latest Rasmussen Reports poll) or speculations on whether one gaffe or another from supporters has irretrievably injured a candidate (Obama/Wright, Clinton/Ferraro, McCain/Hagee, Clinton/Carville).

Note: to be fair, though, I've got to say that the comments by Ferraro and Hagee haven't had the legs that Rev. Wright's have; guess only white people are allowed to be loud-mouthed, bigoted loons.

And if they get tired of the aforementioned sorts of speculations, there is that old reliable - is the extended race for the Democratic nomination hurting the Democratic Party? (Variations on the theme from U.S. News and World Report, Voice of America, The Atlantic, ABC News, Boston Globe, etc.)

Then, of course, there are the filler pieces, like...

Chelsea Clinton getting a little testy when asked an inane question about Monica Lewinsky (like anything else was merited?); or...

...Whether an SNL skit provided incisive political commentary and insight (even SNL occasionally gets one right, doesn't it?)


The most analogous situation that I can think of is that two week period between the end of the NFL's conference playoffs and the Super Bowl, an annual occurrence renowned loads of inanity, smack-talk and fluff, but very little actual substance.

Alas, something tells me that we have three more weeks of the same.