Thanks for the Idiots

I’m very proud to announce that I’ve achieved a special milestone, one hundred candles on my column’s birthday cake. 

When John Ransom asked me to be a regular contributor for Townhall Finance, I thought that writing one column per week would be a fairly easy task. 

After all, I’ve been in the media, both radio and television, for over twenty-five years. 

I’m used to deadlines and being succinct. 

Give the listener, viewer, and now reader a beginning, middle, and an end.  Tell a story that people can visualize, enjoy, and want to repeat to others. 

Be honest, a bit controversial, and always be grounded in the facts. 

This should be easy, I thought.  Bring it on! 

Then I started to really think about content.  Were there enough stories?  Would the ideas flow?  Could the events of the world be sufficient enough to justify that weekly column? 

I broke into a cold sweat. 

Would I let my editor, John Ransom, down?  Would the readers turn away?  Would I disappoint myself?  Question, questions, questions, and no answers!  Should I take this on, or not? 

Then it happened. 

The Supercommittee was formed in order to cut the deficit. 

That was idiotic, I thought, and I said so to my wife. 

“Don’t tell me,” she said. “Tell the world, write it down, write it in a column,” she added. 

As the days and weeks passed by, other actions by Obama, Pelosi, Merkel, Sarkozy, Putin, Clinton, and Palin, seemed to jump up at me and say, “you have a comment, a thought, tell the world, write it down, do a column!” 

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There it was, right in front of me, a whole smorgasbord of things to write about.  I’ll do it!  I told Ransom, “I’m your boy, count me in!” 

With this writing, it will be 100 columns. 

To this point, it’s been fun, interesting, and I hope for you, informative.  You may not always agree with my point of view, but I promise it’ll always be honest and from my heart. 

I know the next 100, dare I say 1000, will be as much fun, and probably as interesting, if not more so, as the first 100. 

Thank you very much for reading me, now it’s time to blow out the candles.