Ted Mack’s Amateur Hour

Back in the day there was a radio program called “Ted Mack’s Amateur Hour” … kind of like these new televised talent-search programs such as Star Search, American Idol and America's Got Talent. … only not so contrived.  Back then, there were true amateurs striving for their big break … and a few actually got one … such as Gladys Knight, Ann Margaret and Pat Boone.

Of late I can think of no better analog to the U.S. foreign policy than another “amateur hour.” We appear fumbling and directionless. Russia’s Putin is running circles around our hapless State Department and our feckless Secretary of State, John Kerry. We are sending oodles of mixed signals as to how we plan to deal with the world’s crises … the Israeli/Palestinian [lack of] peace process, the threat of an Ukrainian invasion by Russia, China’s expansionist designs, and our finger-in-the-wind dealings with Syria and Iran. It honestly appears that we are making things up as we go along.

I wish that President Obama’s Teleprompter could, for once, tell the world, in just a few clear sentences, what exactly our foreign policy is. Can the evil-doers of the world have their way with us without any real consequences? Are there limits to our possible responses to the mischief these bad actors are engaged in? Are we at all interested in improving circumstances around the world? Does our nuclear deterrent mean anything anymore? Why are we so hell-bent on leading from [our] behind?

Perhaps we might call our current foreign policy “lazy fare?” And just where are the grown-ups, such as Dick Cheney and Jim Baker, now that we really need them?

Have a Heart

Former Vice President, Dick Chaney, at 71, got a heart transplant over the weekend  (see: LA Times Story) ... to the consternation of many with Chaney Derangement Syndrome (CDS).  The Internet is full of  snipes deriding Chaney's medical good fortune with churlish comments which don't need any further airing.  I have been listening to talk radio this morning to many accusing Chaney's of line busting (and not).  Bottom line, it appears that, today, people of wealth and notoriety can only earn an advantage in the organ transplant lottery by paying to be listed on multiple transplant lists.

Many knowledgeable callers have said that each of these lists now have strict guidelines to keep movers and shakers from moving to the head of the line unfairly ... and after all Chaney has waited twenty months (with a mechanical heart-pump) for an organ transplant ... unlike Mickey Mantle and John Phillips who, years ago, did appear to have gotten favorable treatment (given the apparent expedited speed of their organ transplant operations.)

But no matter on what side of the CDS spectrum one resides, to me, it is a blessing that Dick Chaney should be with us for some more years.  He is a national resource in that he has been at the center of much of the history-making events over almost forty years and many of his (and President G.W. Bush's) policies are still in effect to push back against international terrorism.  So much of what he knows still is to be captured and writ large in determining how this country continues to navigate our way through the minefields that still await us.