Look Over There

Trey Smith

National politicos often remind me of the ringmaster at a three-ring circus. Working in concert with the lighting crew, they work hard to focus the crowd's attention on one ring or another. One minute the attention is on the center ring and in the next minute our attention is diverted to one or both of the outer rings.

Politicians and pundits try to work this magic as well. When it serves their political purposes, they command us to look at the latest employment figures. "Look here," they say, "the numbers are going up." Turn on most any news talk show or crack open the paper and it's the most talked about headline.

Yet, as soon as those rosy numbers start to tank, we're told not to read too much into such silly statistics! They really aren't all that important. Instead of fixating on rising unemployment, they want us to look elsewhere -- to another ring where a seal will honk some horns or a group of elephants are playing follow the leader.

If, however, those same jobs numbers start to nose back in a more positive direction -- even if the increase is tepid, at best -- our political ringleaders scream, "May I have your attention, please. Look at what's going on in the center ring." It turns that those numbers -- the ones they told us were unimportant a week or two ago -- all of a sudden are NOT unimportant. No, they have been transformed into the marquee stars of the circus.

They will remain the front liners...until they tank again! And once again, our ringmasters will beseech us to "look over there" at the newest spectacle to be brought into the ring.