Barack Obama is going to give a great speech tonight. That’s what he does. That’s what put him on the national stage. That’s what won him the election.

We like good speeches. It’s been a long time since we could enjoy them in American politics. We were too young to listen to Jack. We were too young to understand Bobby. Teddy could deliver a stemwinder, but his speeches were very Old School, a voice from a dying generation. Nobody younger could get away with that.

But as much as we enjoy Obama’s speeches, it pains us to say we don’t trust them. Not any more. Our immediate response to the healthcare speech was simple and direct: “Great speech. But what happens tomorrow?” Get us excited about high ideals, and that just magnifies the disappointment when the practical policies don’t live up to them.

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Such read the college newsroom sign posted by our managing editor, Marvelous Marv. Marv was known to go apoplectic over a fact error in a story — probably the only real-life example of Tex Avery Eyes we’ve seen.

And since our years as a college journalist just preceded Sarah Palin’s (and just followed John Wooden’s retirement at arch-nemesis UCLA), we particularly enjoyed the latest Going Rogue howler:

perhaps the most embarrassing gaffe so far is her mis-attributed quote to UCLA basketball legend John Wooden.

As the epigram to Chapter Three, “Drill, Baby, Drill,” Palin assigns the following remarks to the Hall of Fame hoops coach:

“Our land is everything to us… I will tell you one of the things we remember on our land. We remember our grandfathers paid for it — with their lives.”

Only the quote wasn’t by John Wooden. It was written by a Native American activist named John Wooden Legs in an essay entitled “Back on the War Ponies,” which appeared in a left-wing anthology, We Are the People: Voices from the Other Side of American History, edited by Nathaniel May, Clint Willis, and James W. Loewen.

Marv, wherever you are, pick your eyes off the floor.

Palin’s Latest Rogue Gaffe [HuffPo, via Sully]

John Heilemann in New York magazine:

Yet the emerging doubts about Obama among even his most ardent and sensible fans are deeper and more nuanced than that. After 300-plus days in office, the president remains, for many of his supporters, a worryingly indistinct figure. One whose pragmatic sensibility is crystal clear but bedrock convictions are still blurry.

Well, those convictions are only blurry if you keep ignoring items like this:

Even though a Bush-era request to conduct blanket searches of computer files was rebuked by judges, the Obama administration is now pushing to have the decision reversed, according to court documents filed the week of Thanksgiving.

Then again, we’ve had plenty of time to get used to it.

Obama Lost, Obama Found [New York, via Political Wire]

Following Bush-era argument, Obama attorneys push to weaken search protections [Raw Story]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUhCPADhuCs

Although the news has been, um, out for a week, it took gay-fearing WND to bring it to our attention:

A popular role-playing combat video game featuring graphic homosexual sex between a man and an elf has hit store shelves just in time for Christmas…

The video cuts to a scene in which the two men are dirty, naked and kissing. They are depicted in various homosexual sex positions, and the clip concludes with the two nestling together and gazing into one another’s eyes.

We presume the creators of “Dragon Age: Origins” are just trying to keep up with the market, given that there must be tons of man/elf slashfic by now featuring Viggo Mortensen and Orlando Bloom. But we’ll let WND do the research.

Players have dirty ‘gay’ sex in hit game [WND]

Blogenfreude, June 9:

Buddy of mine here at the office says he went to an autism walk with one of his kids on Sunday.  The guest speaker was … Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who was also to lead the walk.

She bailed out 100 yards in, jumped into an SUV, and headed for Yankee Stadium to meet Rudy.

This was before the Iquitarod, so it was just a passing note at the time. But Friday night, Stinquer Original Andrew was among the first to note a curious sequel from a charity “Turkey Trot” in Kennewick, Washington:

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Suggested Super Bowl halftime set list:

• Put The Money Down
• I Like Nightmares
• We’re Not Gonna Take It
• Much Too Much

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Title: “Last Words: A Memoir”

Author: George Carlin, with Tony Hendra

Rank: 57

Blurb: “In 1993 George Carlin asked his friend and bestselling author [and founding National Lampoon editor] Tony Hendra to help him write his autobiography. For almost fifteen years, in scores of conversations, many of them recorded, the two discussed Carlin’s life, times, and evolution as a major artist. When Carlin died at age seventy-one in June 2008 with the book still unpublished, Hendra set out to assemble it as his friend would have wanted.”

Review: “Okay, so I AM biased. BUT! I even learned things about my dad that I didn’t know.” (Kelly Carlin)

Customers Also Bought: “Going Rogue: An American Life,” by Sarah Palin

Footnote: If George Carlin can make it into the Amazon Top 100, there’s hope.

Last Words [Amazon]

Buy or Die [Stinque@Amazon kickback link]