-Gary McCullough, director of Christian Newswire:
In our office pool to predict the paraphrased expression most often used in President Obama's first State of the Union, I chose the catch phrase of Star Wars' Hans Solo; it's not my fault. I use the term paraphrased because although it is exactly what the President will mean, he will never speak the words.
But I have been told that my pool entry is too broad, thus unfair, akin to predicting American Idol judge Simon Cowell will say, you can't sing. So I am being forced to break down "it's not my fault" into more specific sub-phrases. For those who have yet to finalize your blather-pool on what President Obama will say, here is how we did it:
Number of times said __ -- It's Bush's fault
Number of times said __ -- It's finance executives' fault
Number of times said __ -- It's corporate executives' fault
Number of times said __ -- It's obstructionist Republicans' fault
Number of times said __ -- It's talk radio's fault
Number of times said __ -- America is to blame
I am not going to give you the odds as to which is our pool's leading phrase; that would be cheating. But if you have a sure-winner that we missed, please email it to me marked private. Me cheating? I am just, aaaah, doing research.
I do have a disclaimer since there is a way President Obama will sound like he is accepting blame. It is likely he will say something close to, "I should have communicated our message better." This could be mistaken as President Obama owning-up -- but he and all of us know how inundated we have been with his messages. Such a mea culpa would actually be the President blaming us for either not listening or not understanding his brilliance. Stupid us.
