At Least We Found Out Ron Silver Had Dinner

After Hours (MSNBC)

In his recent State of the Union address, George W. Bush sounded (check one): __Wilsonian __Churchillian __Rooseveltian __Reaganesque __Simpsonian (Homer or Alan)

This characterization (check one):__Makes no difference __Makes no difference

Don't get me wrong. It's not that I think the panelists -- including Pat Buchanan, Ron Reagan, Ron Silver, Kellyanne Conway, Mike Barnacle, and Sam Seder from Air America -- were incapable of having an intelligent discussion regarding Bush's speech, it's just that they never quite got around to it.

BUCHANAN: [T]here is a fiscal - it‘s very close to a fiscal crisis in this country. You collect 16 percent of GDP in revenue, spend 20 percent on all these programs, defense, Social Security, Medicaid, the others that are all going out. That wasn‘t addressed, I think, by the president. What did you think of the speech, what did you think of the Social Security part of it?

RON SILVER, ACTOR: 1:00 in the morning you‘re talking about GDP 16 percent, Social Security....

New debating rules declared: No discussion of economic statistics after midnight, EST.
***

SILVER: Let me tell you something. I have a message to everybody. Apologize. The president‘s won. He‘s done a great job. Let‘s apologize and start again. Come on, this was a very strong speech. Had a lot of balls.

Question: What's the metric here? Number or volume?
***

REAGAN: Kellyanne, what do you think? Social Security the bigger crisis or is it maybe the deficit or Medicare instead?

KELLYANNE CONWAY, THE POLLING COMPANY: It‘s not a matter of degrees and I think so much of this is Beltway blather meaning we‘re all missing the point of what the president is trying to do….look, the one currency that we all lost on 9/11 and continue to try to reclaim is control. Everybody lost consistency and control and certainty that day. What the president‘s theme tonight was was all about control. Allowing you to control your Social Security investments....

That's a new one. We must reform Social Security because of the emotional trauma we suffered on 9/11. Bonus points awarded to Kellyanne, who later in the program also managed to link Social Security reform to abortion and gun control. That's a talk show hattrick.
***

SILVER: Let me tell you why the polls say that most 25 - more 25 year olds believe in UFOs than they‘ll believe that Social Security will pay them when they are ready to retire. They just don‘t believe it‘s going to happen.

Just curious: Was the UFO/Social Security poll conducted by Kellyanne Conway's firm, The Polling Company?
***

REAGAN: You know what I‘m saying. We‘re having a crisis in Social Security so I‘m going to do this thing over here, but that doesn‘t address ...

BUCHANAN: It does address - down the road it does address the benefits some. I‘m sure the benefits for those young people are going to be reduced if they get their personal accounts.

SILVER: Ron, I was not here for the first hour of the program ...
(CROSSTALK)
SILVER: I was dining but

BUCHANAN: Started at 7 o‘clock ...

Hmm, I wonder what Silver had for dinner. Buchanan failed to follow up on that one.
***

BUCHANAN: Let‘s bring Sam back in because Sam, I think I heard you say, you know, the president lied....

REAGAN: Sorry, Sam, we can‘t hear from your right now but we want to hear from you the viewer. Send us your e-mails….We'll be sharing your comments later in the show so stick with us. AFTER HOURS returns in just a minute.

SEDER: Can I call in?

REAGAN: Oh sure, why not.

The sad thing is, they all were phoning it in.