There were a few stories that caught my eye this week. First off, the president’s visit with the congressional Republicans was something to see. If you missed it, you missed out. President Obama fielded questions from a whole horde of congressional Republicans on a wide variety of issues. The whole thing was fairly civil and, relative to the normal discourse, moderately insightful. That should happen more often.
Sarah Palin inserted herself back into the news cycle this week by allowing that she would consider running for president in 2012. Everyone on earth knew that she would at least consider it ever since she quit her gig as Governor of Alaska, but now it is out on the table. In retrospect, it was pretty wily of Governor Palin to wait until now to acknowledge what we all knew. If she had just said so when she was already in the center of the news, she would have wasted a prime spotlight opportunity. She may be more politically astute than anyone has given her credit for.
The thing that really surprised me this week was President Can-Do-No-Wrong taking another shot at trips to Las Vegas. He already did that one, and the whole state of Nevada got worked up into a tizzy. It happens once, and I think he’s just speaking his mind without the aid of a teleprompter or speechwriter. But twice? Why he’d take another slap at Sin City now is beyond me. Even his dearest pal Harry Reid is expressing his displeasure. We’ve already seen the President and Nancy Pelosi at odds recently. Now Harry, too?
On the other side of the spectrum, the Tea Party seems to be suffering from its own brand of internal dissent. The fledgling organization is struggling to define itself, and a fight is looming between the fiscal conservatives and the “Birth Certificate” fringe.
This can’t be good for party unity. Fortunately for us, anything that is bad for the unity of either party makes for great political theater. And there’s this added bonus: when the politicians are busy fighting with each other, they don’t have much time to muck up our lives with their “helpful” legislation.
