Point of View: Unbalanced, Check
Well at least the president didn’t claim the enemy of the people misquoted him — he had, in fact, misquoted himself, he said, when it came to Russia’s meddling on his electoral behalf.
It was all very well for Whitman to say he could contradict himself because he contained multitudes, but when it comes to presidents you like them to wheedle the multitudes down a bit before spouting off, before giving aid and comfort to people who don’t wish us well. As I said last week, cleaning out the cranial closet every now and then makes it tidier.
Though with this one you don’t know what to believe. Nor does he, apparently, know what to believe. Because he doesn’t know his own mind. Other than the pre-eminent fact that he is pre-eminent.
But the All-Star game was fun, wasn’t it? All those home runs. Their boom, boom, boom still resounded this morning as I gazed up from the outdoor shower into the outreaching trees, putting aside for the moment all thoughts of gloom, gloom, gloom, and doom, doom, doom. It’s the papers. Can’t live with ’em, can’t live without ’em, for you do want to stay up on all the lies and calumny and disasters man or God-made (whose reputation, as a result, has been tarnished too).
Greed is the big sin, one of my sons-in-law says, and I guess that the urge to aggrandize, especially in the land of the fee [Don’t you change this, editors, or I’ll take my column and go home!], is pretty rampant. There’s no we in me, and our leader is the avatar in that. But doing for oneself is just the half of it. To be balanced, to live up to this nation’s oft-touted ideals, we must also do for others, in whatever ways we can — even to the extent of covering local sports. So, since he’s unbalanced, he must be checked.
This was to have been the City on the Hill, which would inspire, and to which all would aspire . . . the beacon of freedom, go to the light . . . the envy of all. The beacon’s getting dimmer, the cheering more faint.
The World Cup was fun, wasn’t it? Won by a former ally. Wimbledon too.