On today's Wilshire & Washington: Did everyone enjoy the Jim Bunning Saga of Obstruction? When did acting childish and churlish (and not getting anything for it) become standard operating procedure for Congress? While conservatives like Senator Bunning are having no trouble finding the energy to oppose all the socialism Obama tries to ram down our throats, progressives are a different story. During the campaign, there was a quantifiable way of measuring progressive enthusiasm with my.barackobama.com; now, that enthusiasm has spread out, dealing with smaller problems all over the country. There has been no central issue - other than health care - that progressives can rally about. What if you're a Democrat and health care isn't your issue? How do you get excited about that? So: the big question for 2010 remains, how does Obama get that base back?
An issue that is at least inciting the interest of Hollywood these days is financial and credit card reform. This week brought a fantastic FunnyOrDie.com video, directed by Ron Howard and starring all the past SNL presidents (with the added bonus of a spooky Jim Carrey as Reagan), pushing for the establishment of a Consumer Protection Agency. Is this the only way to get people excited about such a dry issue? And what about us the voters - you, me, your uncle Joe - taking a little blame for running up the credit card? Pity the government can't stop us from being stupid. Pity it's true the other way around, too.
Finally, since we're talking Hollywood, remember how Sarah Palin hates Hollywood and all those liberals who want to take away her guns? Well, now she's one of them. She's no longer a politician (been there, quit that) and more than anything now she's an entertainer. Which makes it perfectly predictable she would be in town pitching a reality show. Hypocritical? Maybe, but she's fascinating to talk about, no matter what side of the political spectrum you're on. Questions like "Is it sexist to criticize her, or is it sexist not to criticize her?" drive normally intelligent people batty, and isn't that a win for everyone?
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Wilshire & Washington, the weekly Blog Talk Radio program that explores the intersection of politics, entertainment, and new media, features co-hosts Ted Johnson, Managing Editor of Variety; conservative blogger Teresa Valdez Klein (www.teresacentric.com), and liberal blogger Maegan Carberry (www.maegancarberry.com). The show airs every Wednesday at 7:30am PST on BlogTalkRadio.com.