I saw at lunch that CNN was doing a package on, get this, how a certain Illinois senator’s last name sounds like, you guessed it, Osama. Oh, and his middle name is, can ya believe it, Hussein. They even rolled out the requisite man-on-the-street footage to get react from John Q Citizen(s).

I realize that the cable channels have a lot of hours in the day to fill, but can anybody tell me how a discussion of a man’s name advances, let alone elevates, the discourse?