Vice President Joe Biden sent me an e-mail today urging me to stand and support the president’s nomination of federal circuit court Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. Why? Can’t I do it sitting down?
Of course, Joe sent the same e-mail to millions of others who normally get messages from President Obama and his minions updating us and soliciting our support on various issues through their vast electronic mail network. I hope Joe doesn’t get in trouble for using the presidential e-mail list.
It is incredible — the use of e-mail — for office holders and politicians to talk directly to their constituency. It isn’t a whole lot different from how congressional members used however much money that was allotted to them to mail newsletters or whatever to those back home. But it is faster. And Congress and everyone else requiring a fan base — like the Counting Crows just to name one — have of course taken advantage of e-mail for some time. But it all is relatively new for a president to do such a thing.
Now naturally there are certain percentages of any communication of any kind one gets from a politician that is pure bullshit. I am not sure what percentage but generally the rule of thumb is, the more words there are, the more likely many of those words will be bullshit. It is fascinating though the president can now use e-mail lists as a means of communication seeking support for various measures and votes.
Back to Joe, whether I am one of the “growing list of Americans who are pledging to stand with Sotomayor” remains to be seen. Oh I could just blindly go on what I’ve read or heard on TV about her since I learned of her nomination a couple of days ago. But as I have mentioned before the hot air dispensers on both sides of the aisle in the Senate are going to take their dear sweet time posing and posturing and pontificating in the run-up to a vote by the entire Senate, provided there will be one and there is no reason to doubt it as of now. So, I don’t see why I shouldn’t just wait and give the Senate their shot to worsen global warming by letting loose all that hot air.
Once that hot air is cleared, maybe I will have the opportunity to sort through the wheat and the bullshit to determine if I truly want to stand with Sotomayor.
But thanks for thinking about me Joe.