“Isn’t it bliss?  Don’t you approve?”  [“Send in the Clowns” by Stephen Sondheim, from the musical, “A Little Night Music,” 1973]  No.  The SOTU address could not even bore me to tears.  The great orator nearly put me to sleep.  Sorry, no thrills up my leg, nor tears moved by Obamamania.  The most emphatic words spoken in the hour-plus speech were: “No more bailouts!”  Well.  After committing spending of five trillion dollars for shovels, GM, Chrysler, multiple banks, Solyndra, health care, ecetera, etcetera – and, yes, for wars -- and after the whores, crickets and cows are out of the barn, he suggests closing the door?  “Just when I’d stopped opening doors.  Finally knowing the one that I wanted was yours, Making my entrance again with my usual flair, Sure of my lines, No one is there.” [ibid]  The sheer volume of the spending dampens any tingle that anyone should feel.  But then again, it may have merely been political spin.  He proposed still additional farce:  commerce cops, as if we did not already have an ATF and a washed-hands Attorney General over that farce.   “Don’t you love farce?  My fault I fear.  I thought that you’d want what I want.  Sorry, my dear.” [ibid]  The song began ringing around my head like a three-act theater in the round.  It was this, alone, keeping me awake.  No, no, children, Sondheim was not referring to three-ring circus clowns.  In theater, when a play in-progress bombs, the word backstage is “send in the clowns,” which is to say it’s time for the jokes.  The show, after all, must go on, even if it is not the show originally planned.

Obama seemed particularly rushed after the speech to leave.  With some arrogance, I admit, I thought he might be hurrying out to recall the last of Sondheim’s classic lyric: “Isn’t it rich?  Isn’t it queer?  Losing my timing this late in my career?  And where are the clowns?  There ought to be clowns.  Well, maybe next year.” [ibid]  We can certainly hope for a change.

As for the rest around that two-second bailout bite? 

Send in the nasal strips.  It’s time for a little night music to put me to sleep.