Life, sticking its head in as it sometimes rudely does resulted in my publishing today’s post late. It was a toss-up whether to blame life or Romney; as popular to lay the blame at Mitt’s feet as it is today, I thought I’d share the wealth instead. On the plus side it gives me an excuse for a quickie post and to dispense with President Obama’s visit to SE Asia in one fell swoop.

When I first heard of the President’s plan to visit Thailand, Burma, and Cambodia I intended on doing a post about the historical significance of his visit. When the matter was taken up on the message boards, I still intended on writing an article even though the board pundits immediately focused on the main issue of his visit: the expected traffic gridlock in Bangkok.

Then I watched Bill Maher’s program last Friday night. Bill mentioned the trip as a throwaway line and his panel was clueless, not even knowing a trip was planned. Well except for the Latina who was on the panel to represent the Republican Party and blame Romney for their election loss while making it clear he is an evil man who does not represent the conservative vote despite the fact that less than two weeks earlier she had been out stumping on his behalf urging the country’s Latino voters to support Mitt since he was the only hope for the future of America. She at least was aware of President Obama’s plans to visit “Tibet or somewhere like that.” It’s good to know that along with a green card when you become an American you can dispense with pesky little issues like geography.

Their lack of knowledge in or interest of the President’s visit brought home the problem with what serves as news in America today. The talking heads who profess to be experts on all matters political are so narrow in their focus they are unaware of anything that does not directly touch on their pet issues. And foreign affairs seems to be no one’s pet issue. The President’s trip was significant on several fronts. Yet in last night’s broadcast Greta Van Nancygrace summed the entire trip up with a quick clip of one of the network’s on-air personalities who, reporting from Cambodia, was inadvertently positioned so that it appeared one of the “lion” statues serving as a fountain looked to be spewing water into the reporter’s ear.

I guess with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert on hiatus someone needed to step up to the plate and provide the comedic version of the news.

This morning I read a recap of President Obama’s trip on-line that at least touched on the historical significance of his visit: it didn’t hold a candle to Nixon’s visit to China in 1972. Of far more interest was the President’s unscheduled visit to the Shwedagon Pagoda that resulted in his, Hillary, and their Secret Service detail wandering about shoeless. The issue of the President using the country’s name of Myanmar in a speech he gave was also touched on, though we all now know the politically correct name is Burma (like, duh – which is easier to spell and pronounce?)

The big news however was the President’s meeting with fellow Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi and how uncomfortable she looked when he hugged her, which was attributed to her being a “devout Buddhist”. That’s why reading the news is so important. I’d been previously misinformed and thought the prohibition was against touching Buddhist monks when it turns out you are not supposed to touch anyone who practices that faith. It’s a good thing, and I thank the gods, that Noom has decided his is a Hindu now instead of a Buddhist or I would surely be condemning his soul to hell. Though I guess since neither the Hindu, Buddhist, or Tibetan voting block will impact the 2016 elections it really doesn’t matter.

Following the professional journalists’ lead, there is no good reason for me to discuss why the President’s trip was important and instead I can get away with an entirely inappropriate and demeaning comment thanks to the above photo of the President and Thailand’s Prime Minister. If that isn’t a “Where you from,” “Where you stay?” “How long you stay Bangkok?” moment then I don’t know what is.

I’m just glad the President got to experience the Thailand so many other Americans have before him. And now we know why he left Michelle at home.