We’ve Got the Death Star Plans. What Do You Want to Do With Them?

The Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner is normally a genteel gathering of the New York elite; political adversaries roast each other in good humor to raise money for a Catholic children’s charity. This year however they got Trumped. There was a time when I would have been appalled by the boorish behavior of both presidential candidates on display last night. Butt that was a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.

In other words, BO: Before Obama.

Being a real glutton for punishment I followed the Wednesday night Rumble in the Jungle – can I say that now that neither candidate is half-black? – with the Thursday night white glove ruckus at the Waldorf Astoria. At the beginning of the evening began everyone had their gloves on, as Maria Bartiromo amply demonstrates:

No wonder Maria is known as the Money Honey

The crowd initially registered their approval by cheering and clapping:

However the gloves quickly came off as the jokes spiraled into the mud pit, forcing patrons to take to the Twitterverse:

Both candidates were quite brutal which should surprise no one as we transform from the Age of Obama to the Age of Trump. Both Donald and Hillary started out with some well crafted jokes before veering off course. Donald with this: “Hillary is so corrupt, she got kicked off the Watergate Commission.” It’s a funny line when not delivered like a stump speech assertion.

And while Jimmy Fallon could have made this line sound funny: “People look at thee Statue of Liberty and they see a proud symbol of our history as a nation of immigrants, a beacon of hope for people around the world. Donald looks at the Statue of Liberty and sees a “four,” Hillary read it like an allegation from a Gloria Allred lawsuit.

So what have we learned here? That neither candidate has very good comedic timing?  Not news. That there’s a thin line between humor and disrespect? Not news either. That every good joke contains an element of truth? Captain Obvious. No my friends all we learned is how utterly, completely, definitively successful Obama has been in fundamentally transforming America.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…

It is a period of civil war. Rebel
spaceships, striking from a hidden
base, have won their first victory
against the evil Galactic Empire.

During the battle, Rebel spies managed
to steal secret plans to the Empire’s
ultimate weapon, the Death Star, an
armored space station with enough
power to destroy an entire planet.

Pursued by the Empire’s sinister agents,
Princess Leia races home aboard her
starship, custodian of the stolen plans
that can save her people and restore
freedom to the galaxy….

Star Wars: it isn’t a movie, it’s an allegory

THE NOVEMBER INITIATIVE