Pompous Circumstances

The highlight of last nights extravaganza actually came in the pre-game coverage, when Joe Scaraborough brazenly admitted to Chris Matthews that the appointment of Sam Alito to the Supreme Court signaled a new day dawning - that yes, basically, the president is trying to pack the bench with stealth conservatives, and Matthews, Russert and all of the other former Carter administration officials who make up the NBC news room could bank on the cold reality that the score in this culture war is now 6 to 3, bee-yotch. He stopped short of saying that Roe vs. Wade would be dismantled by Friday, but the implication was clear.

Then in notable contrast the speech itself was wrapped in pleas for comity and cooperation among the political parties. It was received, of course, with the old mutually exclusive clapping-and-standing routine by the Democrats and Republicans as an indication, alternately, of defiance or support. If the president were more serious about this nonpartisan malarkey he should have stepped down from the podium, started grabbing congressmen and women by the sleeve, and forcefully rearranged them to break up the wolfpacks.

The presidents science initiatives can be summed up as follows:

Electric Engine Hybrids = GOOD
Animal-Human Hybrids = BAD

My remaining notes: Hillary needs to be advised by her staffers that it's important, especially if you aspire to the presidency, to always act like the camera is trained directly on you. Gum chewing and eye-rolling won't win the 35% of the country that consists of centrists and swing voters. And McCain earned his look-at-me-I'm-so- independent stripes by being the only one clapping when Dubya suggested that the practice of legislative earmarking (by which a bill is laden with constituent-friendly bacon) needs to be ended. And the "Democratic response" (a masochistic practice which began during the Reagan years) was a real eye-glazer. Every year the opposition folks who get assigned this unenviable task put on a brave show, and they must earn political hardship pay - but I suspect, secretly, they would rather commit hare kari with a blunt spoon.

Nora Ephron contributes her perspective. (She's dismayed.)