Blink and you will miss the point- 1/25/07

I watched the President’s “State of the Union” speech this week without any significant expectations. I knew that the war in Iraq would dominate. I hoped for (and was pleasantly surprised by) the discussion of health benefits. The President’s proposal for tax breaks to those paying their own health insurance premiums was music to sore ears.

After that gem, the rest of the speech felt like a droning repetition of what Bush has been saying for three years. As the rhetoric grew, I found myself noticing some interesting physical attributes among our elected officials. The television cameras were most often, tightly focused on the faces of House speaker Nancy Pelosi, Vice President Cheney and the President.

When the words “strong” and “fight” and “war” and “troops” played over and over, I started to tune out the babble and noticed a pattern of blinking that was both odd and mesmerizing.

First, I noticed that Vice President Cheney hardly ever blinks. He just stares into space with a rough, sometimes pained expression. He shifts and stares so hard that I wondered what was occupying his thoughts. Perhaps he was counting his remaining days in office. Maybe he was reminiscing about his grand ol’ hunting days and scheming plans to get the President to join him on one of his danger driven wooded adventures.

Then my attention turned to Nancy Pelosi. At the start of the evening, the President with these grand words had introduced her…

“Tonight, I have the high privilege and distinct honor of my own, as the first president to begin the State of the Union message with these words, `Madam Speaker.’”

Well those words must have thrown Nancy for a loop. I started counting Pelosi’s incessant blinking, after noticing the stoic stare of the Vice President. Turns out, that she blinks 14 times for every one Cheney blink. She’s a blinking machine. I bet the President could feel the fluttering breeze from his left shoulder as he spoke.

There are many causes of excessive eye blinking, dry eyes, allergies and even the use of anti-depressants can bring on the batting. The most common cause, however, is nerves.

Nerves seems a likely cause in this case.

Imagine sitting behind the most gaseous President in history when he delivering another bloated speech. Poor lady!