Imus and Frank Rich Discuss Nothing, then Move on to Something

Today, Imus told New York Times op-ed columnist Frank Rich, “Half my friends love you, and the other half of my friends hate you.” Laughing, Rich said he doesn’t know many people who hate the I-Man, but offered to find some. Shouldn’t be too difficult, Frank.

Then, the two engaged in a riveting discussion of why reading a book on an iPad, Nook, or Kindle is usually superior to reading an actual book.  Rich finds the electronic devices convenient, but got into a pickle last year when, during a flight from California to New York, his kindle crashed, leaving him with just an old newspaper and his thoughts to distract him for five hours.

Now, to avoid this sort of first world problem, he travels with both his Kindle and his iPad, but noted these items and their respective power chargers are so cumbersome that “you might as well bring the damn book.”

Having established, well, nothing of importance, Imus asked Rich about his column yesterday, in which he noted that there is a level of rage “still coursing, sometimes violently, through our national bloodstream.”

“There’s too much crazy stuff going on, with people making threats of violence against the President, against anybody that they’re mad at,” Rich said.

According to several nonpartisan reports, including a six-month investigation by TIME Magazine, threats against the government are at the worst level since 1994 and early 1995, just before the Oklahoma City bombing. But Rich doesn’t necessarily believe it’s entirely about President Obama.

“I’m convinced what it is about is the economy,” Rich said. “People are desperate, and there’s not a day that goes by where you don’t hear, or learn of personally, or read in the newspaper, or watch on TV some story about a family that’s lost everything, and in many cases done nothing wrong except be on the wrong side of this complete economic mess.”

The Tea Party has pledged to “take back” the country in November, a phrase Rich interprets as people feeling government has taken over their lives. “I really feel it’s an incredible exaggeration,” he said. “I don’t think Obama has been nearly that effective.”

Like Imus, Rich believes the phrase has some racial underpinnings, or did initially. “When a politician yells to an audience that’s entirely white people, ‘Let’s take our country back,’ intentionally or not…that’s ugly,” he said.

Rich admitted that any potential advantages of the Obama health care plan remain obscure, but giggled when Imus cited Bernard’s description of Obama-care.

“Taxes going up,” Imus said. “Grandma’s going down.”

-Julie Kanfer