I know I’m not supposed to be watching CNN, but had I not, I would never have seen the truly sublime moment I am about to recount.
At approximately 8:13 PM CDT, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was well into her convention address. Watching CNN you wouldn’t know this unless you were following one of the myriad tickers or (wtf?) "Sound on the Floor" audience meters that didn’t seem to pick up anything not broadcast through a PA. But I digress.
Nancy speaking. In the background because there must be some late-breaking news to trump the Speaker of the freakin’ House of Representatives, right? Wrong. But this is where it gets crazy. Follow me if you dare.
It starts out innocently enough...Wolf carefully regurgitating his cud of right wing talking points, "Nancy Pelosi, Jimmy Carter, Ted Kennedy...blah, blah...liberal wing of the Democratic Party...blah, blah." Then AC moves the thread along wondering how these speeches will play with those gentle souls at home watching.
No time for reflection...just a quiet thought spun like gossamer, insubstantial prelude to "Let’s bring in Virginia Governor Tim Kaine and see if we can’t make him wallow in his own inadequacy, shall we?"
Kaine’s wallowing, unfortunately, is less than satisfactory, and AC begins to sense the moment. He jumps, returning to his carefully spun thread to ask again about how these speeches will play because they’re so darn liberal. And then he does it. He says the words that turn everything upside-down, "We’re hearing from Nancy Pelosi right now."
Let me say that again, "We’re hearing from Nancy Pelosi right now."
Only we weren’t hearing from Nancy Pelosi. For whatever reason, CNN and the dreamy AC decided that their analysis of a speech was not only more important than the speech itself, but that one needn’t even bother listening to the speech; their analysis would be enough.
And they looked and saw that it was good.
And AC matched Derek Zoolander stare for stare.
And somewhere, Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida had a quiet drink and smiled!