Waiting for Godot syndrome

Like Estrgon, in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, I am “pale for weariness” after catching a bit of MSNBC’s Morning Rundown (co-hosted by Savannah Guthrie and Chuck Todd, two of the saner political news reporters). It offered to do a wrap-up of last night’s Florida debate between senator wannabes Charlie Crist, Kendrick Meek and Marco Rubio. Oh, goody, I thought. I primed myself for a healthy morning dose of substance. Silly me. As I sat on the edge of my couch, I quickly learned that the debate sparked “fireworks” but its three-way nature made it “hard to follow.” Huh? Crist, the reporters said, straddled the middle. Meek embraced “Obama’s strategy” (whatever that is), and both Crist and Meek attacked Rubio as a rightwing extremist. Going all Shakespearian on us (or so he thought), Crist fired a zinger at Rubio. “You haven’t been drinking the Kool-aid, my friend, you’ve been drinking too much tea.” Get it? Tea – as in Tea Party. (Oh, snap! Um, well, maybe not.) Rubio, for his part, behaved with the “cool air of a frontrunner.” The sense of disappointment was nearly palpable when Guthrie/Todd concluded that the debate, alas, had produced no “knockout punch.” Well, like the two main characters in Beckett's literary classic waiting for the mystical Godot, watching the Daily Rundown was a way to "hold the terrible silence at bay." But waiting for cable news shows to actually report substance is perhaps a bridge too far. Like Estragon, I find myself muttering, "Nothing to be done."