THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 20, 1996 TAG: 9610180208
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 07 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: ON THE STREET
SOURCE: Bill Reed
LENGTH: 64 lines
TV channel surfing on weekends can be hazardous to your mental health.
On a recent Sunday evening, a tweedy and rather smug commentator was holding forth on a national cable channel about how BORING the presidential campaign has become.
BORING, BORING, BORING, the commentator clucked. Watching grass grow was more exciting.
Humdrum, dull, dreary, monotonous, pedestrian, plodding, pokey, yawn-making, he sniffed.
No conflict, no finger pointing, no mud slinging, absolutely no pizazz, he said. The Republicans weren't jumping hard enough on the ``character issue'' that hangs over Clinton, and Clinton wasn't taking advantage of Dole's ties to big-money lobbying groups.
Dole isn't nimble enough to corral his glib opponent in the campaign give-and-take, and Kemp and Gore are being much too civil to each other, the commentator added.
Everybody is much too nice. Somebody has muzzled the always acerbic Newt and shuffled the usually controversial Hillary off to the hinterlands, where she remains a distant and elusive target for right-wing sharpshooters until the ballots are counted.
As he droned on, this self-important fellow was becoming more irritating by the minute, prompting some very profane observations from an easy chair jockey in the den of a Virginia Beach home.
Especially irritating was the implication that the whole presidential campaign was being staged strictly for this guy's amusement and he was not amused.
Listening for a few strained minutes before zapping on to the late afternoon pro football game (which had far more entertainment value and insight, by the way, than this guy's opinions) one question loomed large:
Who gave this chump the right to decide whether or not the campaign or any other event is BORING to the world at large? This question prompted another question: Who cares what he thinks?
Since when does politics have to be entertaining, the arm chair jockey muttered to himself. A lot of folks obviously think it is entertaining, of course. They're usually the ones involved either as office seekers or as behind-the-scenes string pullers.
Nevertheless, with or without that certain electricity that makes the pulses of pundits palpitate, many Americans still wait until election day to decide who to vote for.
Sometimes they even wait until they're behind the voting booth curtain with pencil or stylus poised over the ballot. And they do it without getting any input at all from Rush Limbaugh, G. Gordon Liddy or Sam Donaldson - a horrifying thought, I'm sure, to those chaps.
Pundits, electronic and print varieties, naturally are out to beat the drum for their own causes. Their purpose is to make people think about candidates or issues like welfare, abortion, deficit reduction, tax increases, defense spending, foreign affairs and what not. That's why they get paid the big bucks.
Admittedly, their dialogue is needed to air the things that concern Americans from all walks of life.
The problem arises when they become overly impressed with themselves, sometimes to the point of self-deification.
As far as I know - and I'm pretty sure about this - there is only one known instance in the books where a guy stepped down from a tall mountain carrying stone tablets inscribed with direct help from the Almighty. by CNB