The Joke's on Who?

Here's a little story, probably made up, but as the "healtcare summit" in Blair House on Thursday reminded us, politics is as much about "made-up stuff" as indisputable facts. Here begins the joke:

A woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost. She lowered her altitude and spotted a man in a boat below on a lake. She shouted to him,
"Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am."

The man consulted his portable GPS and replied, "You're in a hot air balloon, approximately 30 feet above ground elevation of 1,346 feet above sea level. You are at 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude.

"She rolled her eyes and said, "You must be an Obama Democrat."

"I am," replied the man. "How did you know?"

"Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is technically correct. But I have no idea what to do with your information, and I'm still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help to me."

The man smiled and responded, "You must be a Republican."

"I am," replied the balloonist. "How did you know?"

"Well," said the man, "you don't know where you are or where you're going. You've risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. You're in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but somehow, now it's my fault."

Here ends the joke, but for anyone annoyed at any subtle hints of a possible partisan bias, please check out the online New York Times "It's Debatable" blog for this weekend. This feature aims to summarize all the mainstream media's reaction to the Summit, seeking to deem who won, etc. My own comment is somwhere on the first page of comments, around number 11 or so. If you bother to read it, it will put to rest any worries about pro-Obama bias on the blogger's part.