Do They Look In The Mirror

Barrie Cassidy on the ABC works up a bit of indignation with his opinion piece: Who cares about the important stuff?

It was the ultimate sideshow.

President Barack Obama called a press conference on Wednesday to distribute copies of his birth certificate, trying to put to rest persistent claims that he was really born not in Hawaii but in Kenya. And remarkably, almost all of the major networks took the event live to air.

As the president observed, had he been talking about national security, that would never have happened.

He pointed out that two weeks ago the nation was embroiled in a budget crisis, but the dominant story nevertheless was his birth certificate.

“We’re not going to be able to solve our problems if we get distracted by sideshows and carnival barkers,” he said.

He makes a point and it filled time until the ABC was able to report: Britain withdraws Syria envoy’s royal wedding invite

Britain has withdrawn the Syrian ambassador’s invitation to the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, saying the regime’s crackdown on protesters made his presence “unacceptable”.

Foreign secretary William Hague made the decision and the royal family agreed that Sami Khiyami should not attend Friday’s ceremony, the Foreign Office said in a statement, following criticism from rights groups.

Which helped to continue the average of 15 minutes between new stories about the event that only effects two families and the manufacturers of tawdry memorabilia.

Sorry, Barrie, but the polls are still open for the “ultimate sideshow”.

Update: CNN’s Jeanne Moos reports that carnival barkers are upset that they were compared to Donald Trump.