Send Out the Clowns

 The flap over the now infamous Missouri State Fair rodeo clown’s spoof of President Obama is not just a simple tempest in a teapot.  It only adds to my wonderment at the nature of humor. For years, I have asked myself why some who make one quip perceived as racist have to quit their jobs, weep and gnash their teeth in eternal banishment while others get away with it, even make a way-more-than-comfortable living at it.

For decades, Don Rickles packed auditoriums in Vegas. Bill Maher would seem to be his logical successor, with shtick full of comments about blacks, Asians and others that are clearly racist -- but most of us laugh anyway. On the female side, there are Joan Rivers and perhaps her successor, Sarah Silverman, whose main goal seems to be to shock us.

Many comedians work “dirty” these days, with shtick full of f-words. Personally, I think Robin Williams is a stitch without the injection of such language, but he does it in concerts. Maybe that’s just me. When I was young I laughed very hard at Red Skelton, from whose lips a dirty word never issued on stage or screen.

In one of those famous Woody Allen movies whose titles all run together in my head, Alan Alda, playing a TV star, is seen telling a group of up-and-comers, “If it bends, it’s funny; if it breaks, it’s not funny!” Sometimes it’s about the material. The joke just doesn’t work. Or the comedian can’t make it work.

Is it about conscious – or even unconscious – intention? The Missouri rodeo clown could have been just plain mean. But were those who made fun of Bush 43, Reagan, Nixon, Clinton or Carter any less mean? Does Obama “deserve” it any less than they? I return to Bill Maher, who makes jokes about Obama’s race on practically every show.

Maybe it’s about the comedian internally laughing along with us, bringing to the surface attitudes many of feel we have to suppress or are afraid to recognize in ourselves. Prejudices, if you look at them from a distance, are actually fuuny, largely because they make no sense. But there’s a chord that has to resonate someplace in us to bring out the laugh.

As you can see, I haven’t begun to figure this out, but I’m not sure the myriad of minds out there better than my own have figured it out either. Don’t even think about applying concepts like fairness or consistency to this problem. You will fail miserably, as I have.

Falling in Love

OK, so stop me if you haven’t heard any of these stories before: Powerful man in highly sensitive government post has an extramarital affair. A biographer falls in love with the subject of the work. A leak occurs; powerful man quits. These things don’t always happen in the same way or in the same order, but the elements are the same.

When he knew that his affair with Paula Broadwell was no longer a secret, Gen. David Petraeus, probably the most respected military leader of the last decade, quit his post at the CIA. The question for me is, how much of his business is our business?

I am a great admirer of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, but I don’t agree that this is necessarily Congress’ business. That said, I do recognize that these kinds of things can be potential security risks, simply by the nature of the commission of an act the individuals involved want to hide. I’ve always believed that what Bill Clinton did with Monica Lewinsky fell into this category; this is very much the same. The FBI has investigated the Petraeus affair, however, and has found no breach of security, at least so far, which would be the trigger for the agency to inform Congress. I think times have changed a little since J. Edgar days!

It’s true that many of the facts haven’t come out yet. For example, Ms. Broadwell gave a speech in which she said the Benghazi attack may have been in retaliation for the CIA holding two terrorism suspects in Libya. How did she know that, and should that have been dribbled out in a speech?

Some Europeans, of course, think we’re getting worked up about very little. A powerful man having an affair is not a news story to them. But our Puritan roots are always exposed by these cases. You would think we’d be less Puritanical as time goes on, not more. It’s ironic that we’re able to “compartmentalize” the religious beliefs of powerful individuals, but we can’t seem to do it with their sexuality.

There are real tragedies here, as both Gen. Petraeus and Ms. Broadwell have families. But beyond those private issues – which should remain so – there is a public tragedy. The country, at least in the short term, is deprived of the talents of two high-achieving individuals. For the moment, Gen. Petraeus’ career and the wealth of knowledge that he brought to his new job are functionally useless. Biographer Broadwell, for her part, is no fawning girl: she is a West Point graduate with an impressive career of her own. The Europeans have something of a point when they say that our reactions to these things are a little out of proportion. And BTW, don’t we have other things to think about in Washington right now, like fiscal cliffs?

But hey, this is America. I’m an American, and if you’re like me, you may be a little conflicted. We’re poised to lap up every sordid detail of this business so we can pass judgment on it – as we wonder whether it’s really our business at all.

A President's Mission in Life

President Obama left no doubt about his mission after getting into office: it was to do something about reforming healthcare. Exactly how he did it or whether he did it well are debatable, but the bottom line is, he did it.

Presidents who have missions usually accomplish them. With Lincoln it was freeing the slaves; with Teddy Roosevelt it was busting trusts; with FDR it was the New Deal; with Johnson it was the Great Society. It doesn’t mean the missions were always good (war in Iraq) – but they were missions.

I want the next President to make tax reform his mission in life (or at least in office, but life would be better). All these discussions about increasing taxes on the wealthy or continuing tax cuts, capital gains rates, you name it, just take us around in very big circles.

The federal income tax code is 100 years old next year. When it started out, it was probably a good idea in concept, like the plans for a simple new home to support a nuclear family. But almost right away, they started adding wings to accommodate great aunts, and upper stories to take care of cousins. After a while, such structures become ugly and unbalanced. The roof starts to leak, then the rats come, and well, there it goes. The owner keeps making simple repairs to keep up, but eventually loses control.

Taxes are an issue at the very heart of our economic crisis. Some may get angry at Mitt Romney for paying only 13 percent in taxes or squirreling money away in the Cayman Islands, but if what he’s doing is legal, he’s only doing what just about all of us would do if we were in his shoes. It’s not his fault. It’s the system.

The other night, CNN reported that while the IRS collects $1 trillion or so a year in taxes, the loopholes and exemptions total about $1.3 trillion. Bill Clinton talks about arithmetic. There’s Lesson One.

So please, Mr. President, whoever you may be next January, make comprehensive tax reform your mission in life. The code doesn’t have to be complicated. All it really has to be is fair. Just decide for yourself that it’s doable, and take us there. The opponents of healthcare reform will be pussycats compared to who’s going to come after you over this issue. That’s why it has to be your mission.

Deserved Leadership

We often hear after an election that we get the leadership we deserve. Those saying this are usually on the losing side, blaming the stupidity of those who made the wrong choice. But the expression works both ways. We always deserve effective leadership, and many are ready to say that as of January 20th, we have it.

Not to get religious on you, but the Bible, whether you believe in it or not, is full of stories of seemingly unlikely people being elevated to positions of authority. The most famous example is Moses, who was tending his father-in-law’s sheep when he saw the burning bush. When the Lord told him he would be leading the Jews out of Egypt, his reaction was, “Who am I?” He didn’t have President Obama’s oratorical gifts. I guess that’s why the Lord needed the stone tablets to get the Ten Commandments across. David didn’t look nearly as much like a king as his brothers, but he was the one chosen by the prophet to reign over Israel. And Jesus was just a carpenter. He had a lot of trouble convincing others that he had been anointed.

During the presidential election campaign it was pointed out that Barack Obama lacked experience; his work as a community organizer was demeaned, and, of course, he is black, or half-black, to be precise. Many probably still feel that Hillary Clinton and John McCain would have made fine presidents. But it just didn’t happen that way.

The jokes about Obama’s election representing the second coming abound. But the fact that 2 million people stood out hours in the cold to watch him take the oath shows how many believe that that’s what we deserve. Did we get it?

Of course, we won’t know the answer to that for a while, and in a year from now, many of us may have very different feelings about Mr. Obama. As for comparisons to Jesus, well, it seems a very good bet that our new president won’t be ascending into heaven before our eyes anytime soon. At least not before the end of his second term.

There, now I’ve said it.