Cringe factor: Best news about Olympics is that it has kept the politicians off air

It really isn't anything personal.

After all, who really likes to have to listen to a politician drone on for hours during prime time.

So when President Barack Obama starting hitting the airwaves with some kind of special press conference or address to the nation what seemed like every other week -- it is logical that it might make his constituents more than a little testy.

The Obama administration certainly has proven that it is not shy. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that he has had more command of TV time than any other president so far.

That's just another reason to be grateful to the athletes of the 2010 Winter Games. There is no way NBC is giving up that ad revenue for anyone -- unless there really is a national emergency.

And during the relative quiet of the last few weeks, some of us have discovered something -- the less the politicians have the spotlight and the opportunity to talk, the better most of us feel about the future of our country.

It is hard to explain, really. Perhaps we just have learned that most of what comes out of their mouths is hooey -- or perhaps we are just tired of listening to them in general.

The sad reality is that the Olympics are bound to end soon -- countries will go home and prime-time television will return to normal.

And that means politicians, not medal counts, will be big news again.

But perhaps this time we can take away a lesson.

It is really true what comedian Jerry Seinfeld says -- "no one 'needs' to talk."

And the first people to whom that rule should apply are politicians.

Published in Editorials on February 22, 2010 10:45 AM