Pols

Sunday night brought a good edition of “60 Minutes,” a television show that has been around for ages. There was Oklahoma’s own senator, Tom Coburn, telling it like it is, the unattractive truth about political polarity and the state of do-nothingness in Washington. Essentially, Senator Coburn, remarking about his fellow politicians and himself, said something like, “Throw all of us bums out,” or words to that effect. The senate majority and minority leaders were interviewed, too, and it was clear that they planned to not agree in the future, as much or more than they have in the past.  

Following the senators, there was an excellent Morley Safer piece with the historian David McCullough, who thought both sides in the presidential election of 2012 were spending w-a-a-y too much money. He wondered, for what? He fondly remembered the Truman whistle-stop tour of 1948, and Harry telling the thousands of people who came to hear him speak at each stop, from the rear of the presidential railroad car, the plain unvarnished truth. (That railroad car, built for FDR, had a concrete bottom to protect against any bombs set underneath in WWII. Fortunately, there were none. It also had a speedometer, and President Truman, according to Margaret Truman’s biography, was upset when the speed exceeded 100 mph.) 

David McCullough is a class act — the McCullough-Safer duo even visited Philadelphia, where our democracy got started.

There was also a nice piece about Green Bay’s quarterback, Aaron Rodgers. However it’s hard to compete with crazy politics and the creation of a country.

Have a great week, and, no matter who won (this is written before Tuesday), celebrate the United States.