The Tortured Mind of a Genius

From Fox News:  PBS Defends Cutting Footage of McCartney's Jab at Bush From Broadcast

Is this even controversial? I've been out of the politics loop for a very long time, but this doesn't seem at all like something to get worked up about, or even report.  It doesn't even seem like PBS is defending the cut, or only doing so half-heartedly.  Quarter-heartedly. and with another guys heartedly-ness.

McCartney's comment doesn't seem all that bad either, other than being a tired old joke. He is probably also being lazy.  If you're one of the most recognizable singer/songwriters in the world, invited to the White House, and standing in front of the President, you probably feel some pressure to say something memorable, but memorable is tricky. Maybe something amusing instead?  Amusing is easier anyway, but you don't want to try to improvise something, because Jerry Seinfeld is watching only a few feet away and you just KNOW that if you try for the big laugh you'll be upstaged by him there or maybe later at some press-filled cocktail party that no-one told you about. Or you'll be ceaselessly compared to him, the way people are always secretly comparing you to Tilda Swinton...   stupid Seinfeld.  Stupid White Witch ...

Hmm.?  Oh yes, focus.... a Democrat occupies the White House, so jokes about Republicans should fly, but who to make the butt of the joke? James Garfield? Nah, an assassination joke probably wouldn't go over well.  Eisenhower?  Nah, he's a war hero.  Reagan, maybe?  Golly, no way! That will definitely stir up a hornets nest of GOP anger. G.H.W. Bush ?  Well... kind of tough. Seems to have been a decent guy, not a bad or controversial president, and only a single term. Would take too much thought to find something good.   So that leaves... oh hey! The current President's predecessor! Hasn't been out of office too long, and the Dems REALLY seemed to dislike the guy and they talk like the current President's election was a complete repudiation of the last guy's entire term of service!  Plus, all the jokes have already been written and retold!  Can't miss!

So he spits out the easiest, laziest joke, just to get a quick chuckle.  The crowd chuckles, mostly out of politeness for the venerable former-Beatle, then everyone goes to do whatever people do after a visit to the White House, like eat pizza or play Jenga or something.

Unless you're good ol' Paul.   Instead, you go off and obsess about how you know you had something incredibly poignant and simultaneously hilarious to say but all the pressure of  Jerry Seinfeld's presence probably made your brain lock it away in your subconscious for all time and now the world will never know it.  Stupid Seinfeld with his handsome and charismatic presence.  

Poor Paul...  a tortured mind, if that fictionalized insider's view of his internal thought processes are accurate.

Anyway, I say this is a totally dumb thing to get worked up about, though former Bush White House Press Secretary Dana Perino would seem to disagree with me.  She says, "It was sad to me someone of Paul McCartney's stature can in one moment erase years of goodwill that he built up with so many people in America."   

People who would allow something this insignificant to "erase years of goodwill" probably already had their own right-leaningness and Paul's left-leaningness clash, erasing the goodwill long ago.  The people who enjoy participating in the Us-vs.-Them politics and squabbling will still outraged, lined up on their respective sides, hollering and hooting at their opponents (they aren't really outraged, by the way. Blockbuster was out of the movie they wanted. Well, there were, like, a dozen copies, but all Blu-Ray, and they really don't want to spend so much for a Blu-Ray player right now.  But if you can't make it a Blockbuster Night, may as well get pissed off about something ).

Those of us who don't give a flying hogmonkey's rump will just use it as a way to relieve their boredom of searching the interwebbs for one single, particular, stupid-ass t-shirt, or the bleeding manufacturer that doesn't have a website, or maybe a retail outlet that even mentions that they buy from this manufacturer. Please, Kibo, give me something!