Once Upon a Time

Maybe there was a meeting, maybe it was just serendipity but after one dreadful guest on MSNBC Live the airwaves were filled with thoughtful, authentic, and intelligent commentary from both guests and hosts.

On MSNBC live Tom Graves, of GA, giggled and smirked his way through an interview with Rev. Al. Sharpton. His mission was to blame everything on President Obama and fail at math. He couldn't even do those two simple things without behaving like an drunken entitled frat boy.

Solstice Moon, Amanda Clark

But things got better.

On Hardball, Chris Matthews ran tape of President Obama's recent speech, highlighting the portion where he said that Democrats and Republicans both had to compromise, and then Matthews interviewed a Democrat and a Republican who did not want to compromise.

Rep. Donna Edwards, MD presented a cogent and comprehensive Democratic viewpoint on debt and obligation and was really, really clear on the Democratic ideals that drove her position and the factual foundation and probable ramifications of deviation from the Democratic position. It was a pleasure to listen to.

Less pleasurable, but far more informative and less canned than Tom Graves' interview, was TX Rep. John Culberson's presentation fo the Tea Party view. I didn't agree with it, but it wasn't deliberately untruthful (I don't think), and gave a really well-reasoned argument. At the very end of the interview, Chris Matthews' forced him to say on record that of course he would vote to keep the U.S. Government running.

Strawberry sky, Amanda Clark

Then the plot took an exciting twist. Lawrence O'Donnell laid out what he thought was President Obama's strategy, which he called brillant. And it kinda is, if it is true, and it kinda sounds true. To bolster some of his premises, he brought on Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, who confirmed a couple of key points: The people in the room debating the debt ceiling all know that the debt ceiling has to be raised and that a deal must be made by August 2. The crazies are not part of the discussion. Boy, it was a wonderful thing to listen to someone who didn't just parrot nonsense from notes scribbled a bar napkin.

This was a really good news night. Jesus Christ, I wish we could get rid of all the vapid opportunistic narcissist assholes who ruin everything.