Wishful Thinking

I still watch NBC's "Meet the Press" almost every week. It is one of few remaining venues for hard hitting, nonpartisan breakdowns of the day's issues. That said, I am less than enthused about replacement host David Gregory, though he has occupied the seat once held by the inimitable Tim Russert for nearly a year. Gregory is competent sure, but his somewhat whiny and nagging interview style just doesn't hold up against the alternately benevolent/attack dog beauty of the departed Mr. Russert.

I was satisfied when Tom Brokaw became the interim host of the program after the untimely death of Mr. Russert in 2008. Who doesn't esteem Brokaw, especially during an election cycle? However, Brokaw inevitably shuffled back into semi-retirement. So things have changed and the new "Meet the Press" may never get me as jazzed as it once did. And yet, the show continues to carry the clout required to book high profile names each and every week.

Yesterday's episode was a dessert buffet for Boop. Our current Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton, appeared on the program, of course, to discuss the number of pressing foreign policy issues facing our nation: Iran, North Korea, Afghanistan, and for those who forgot this quagmire is still going on, Iraq. Of course, Gregory grilled Clinton on Obama's current health care war, though it is a domestic issue, becuase of the Secretary's own belly flop in the fight for change in that area in the mid 90s.

True, I do not hide my love for Madame Clinton under a bushel. I think she's fabulous. So well spoken, never stutters, never goes off message, never gets tricked by pundits into saying things she doesn't want to. The lady is a true pro, a veteran of the political game for decades in a variety of remarkable positions. Ok, I know the election is over. At one point, I took Obama's nomination over Hills very hard. Though I believe you can tell I have since come around.

But there's one decision made in the course of the 2008 campaign from which I have not recovered. I, like so many Democratic party supporting women, wanted Hillary for VP. As I watched her professional grace and je ne sais quoi at work on "Meet the Press," I thought of the week in media for our current Vice Prez, Joe Biden. You know, the guy who is aware that Obama is trying to push the "reset" button in our relationship with Russia, yet ran off at the mouth (again), declaring the former Soviet nation to be out of touch and "unsustainable?" Yeah - that genius. Believe me, I have tried very hard to get over Obama's political tactic of choosing Biden as his running mate during the campaign. At the time, I understood that Obama needed to answer the recurring charges of inexperience with a gray haired sidekick.

But as the last 6-7 months have played out, I ask you America, what else has our VP done other than create sound bite problems for our new president? Seriously, what? Because maybe I am not aware of Biden's early greatness, too distracted by his foolhardy claims that the young administration "misread" the economy and other such malarkey.