I watched the State of the Union address – well, parts of it anyway. My attention was diverted when I received a link to a film of Tanner Hall (Skier Caught Filming Jump off Roof of Trego School) skiing into a tree, busting himself up, and crying “ow, ow, ow.” Watched it 3 times before my laugh level dropped to mild chuckles on the fourth iteration. Schadenfreude is not the most noble emotion, but it was evidence that karma is still working. I saw that over 5,000 people liked the video – but I doubt if any of those who clicked the like button enjoyed it as much as I.
With the sidebar to Joe Biden’s speech being the cockroach skiing into a tree and breaking bones, Slow Joe looked pretty good to me. Sure, I’ve seen the post SOTU comments, describing how often our President lied, invented words, etc. and that only 18% of those polled want him to run again. The thing is – I counted Biden out back in 1988 when Dukakis proved him a plagiarist and pushed him to the sidelines of the Democrat presidential primaries. So far as I was concerned, it was Dukakis’ finest accomplishment – but I’m an academic, and plagiarism is pretty much the unpardonable sin within the academy. Obviously, I was wrong to count Slow Joe out in 1988.
Joe completed law school at 26. At 30, he began his Senate career – from 1973 to 2009 – then spending 8 more years as vice-president before spending 4 years out of office, then winning the presidency. The man is obviously good at winning elections. I’m not really sure what else he’s good at, but he is good at winning elections.
As I think of 2024, and look at the potential Biden-Trump rematch, the words from the old Kingston Trio song come back; “Too old, entirely too old.”
Trego's Mountain Ear 