They can't stand to look.

Nothing sends those of a certain political stripe -or pigmentation- into state of anger and histrionics like the sight of a certain person of color assuming his position as the most powerful man on earth, and delivering his state of the union (SOTU) address to a nation that elected him twice.


I have always looked forward to this ritual since Barack Obama became president of these divided states of America, because I find the pomp and circumstance and imagery that goes along with it to be quite amusing. If only because I know that it drives those on the right a little nuts.
 

Now, let's be clear, I, like other progressives, have not been a big fan of some of the things that this president has done. But if we are going to be totally objective, he hasn't been that bad. (Read this excellent article from my friend Will Bunch). And, actually, given what we had to endure for the eight years prior to him taking office; his image should probably be put up on Mt. Rushmore.

"As undignified as it is unedifying and unnecessary, the vulgar State of the Union circus is again at our throats. The document that the Constitutional Convention sent forth from Philadelphia for ratification in 1787 was just 4,543 words long, but this was 17 too many. America would be a sweeter place if the Framers had not included this laconic provision pertaining to the president: “He shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the union.

The Constitution’s mild requirement has become a tiresome exercise in political exhibitionism, the most execrable ceremony in the nation’s civic liturgy, regardless of which party’s president is abusing it. You worship bipartisanship? There is not a dime’s worth of difference between the ways the parties try to milk partisan advantage from this made-for-television political pep rally.


Tuesday evening, Barack Obama probably will concentrate on inequality as a way of changing the subject from his inconvenient triumph, the Affordable Care Act. So he probably will again propose partial public financing of Democratic candidates’ campaigns, by again calling for “high-quality” universal preschool. This adjectival phrase is code for: Now we will do better because we will employ more certified — and unionized — teachers.


......In 2010, Chief Justice John Roberts said: “The image of having the members of one branch of government standing up, literally surrounding the Supreme Court, cheering and hollering while the court — according to the requirements of protocol — has to sit there expressionless, I think is very troubling.


Justice Antonin Scalia no longer attends what he calls “cheerleading sessions.” Justice Clarence Thomas, who says “there’s a lot that you don’t hear on TV — the catcalls, the whooping and hollering and under-the-breath comments,” will not be there Tuesday night. Will Roberts attend? No justices or senior military officers should stoop to being props at these puerile spectacles." [Source]

   

Mr. Will is calling for us to do away with this "puerile" spectacle. Yeah OK, I wonder if he would feel the same way if a member of his political gang was giving the SOTU address tomorrow night.

Why wasn't it "troubling" when members of another branch of government would have to sit through cheer leading for other presidents in the past? Rhetorical question; I know why.

I guarantee you that if it was Mitt Romney giving that address, George Will, along with his friends over at FOX News, would be cheering louder than everyone else, and he would be hanging on to every poll tested word from his political soul- mate.