The U.S.A. and Chyna

Everyone from editorial writers to Spike Lee thinks that Obama should be less cool and collected and more emotional and angry over the oil spill in the Gulf. He apparently responded by telling Matt Lauer he was finding out "whose ass to kick." There are some questions this demands aside from the obvious questions of presidential decorum. If the spill is the result of an honest error made by a workman or a supervisor, will the full weight of the executive branch be brought to bear against him? Will he be vilified? Ridiculed? Be held responsible financially by some bill of attainder? Will his life and actions be examined by government committees, conferences and news shows? If it is the result of a policy error or metal fatigue or a supplier's error, how will the blame be resolved and who will be held responsible and have his "ass kicked"? And as this technology is so new, the effort so gigantic, are there good norms for behavior? If so, who has set them? There are 56 tapes of the Roethlisberger investigation; certainly the people involved in this huge accident will deserve more evaluation and thoughtful criticism.

Or is this nonsense? Is this simply an effort to appear involved, committed and virile? Moreover, is it an attempt to seem in control of whatever is happening?

As we become less interested in substance and more interested in form, the powers that be will become more personalities and less people, more leadership-like and less leaders. Perhaps there will be a presidential form-and-substance advisor like the Office of Protocol. Soon these politicians will become good at this acting, perhaps under the tutelage of Vince McMahon (whose wife is running for senate!), and will develop clear-cut images like The Crusader, The Little Guy, Fossile Fuel and Rowdy Roddy Piper. Soon everything will become clarified, even the future.