Smokin鈥� Joe Biden!
A show of hands: How many of you like balloons?
Let me back up.
How many of you like menacing balloons, with unknown motives about 12 miles above your head?
If you don’t, I’m in your camp.
But with the keen-eyed efficiency of our U.S. military machine, I’m quite satisfied with that recent balloon-ectomy.
We’re now safe – for the time being.
So don’t get fooled by the alarmist prattle coming from the political right.
Those folks have suddenly become extra knowledgeable about balloon sciences since it was revealed that a 200-foot-tall object was spotted 12 miles above Montana.
It was nearly enough to have some folks want to pull out their AK-47s and fire into the sky.
Fortunately, that never happened. Or at least it wasn’t reported that it never happened.
As soon as we were told that thing was a Chinese spy balloon, Republicans jumped into action. Not with how to bring down the balloon – but how to bring down Joe Biden.
Many said the fact that the balloon hadn’t been shot down as soon as it was discovered was a sure sign Biden is weak.
But Biden immediately said he’d ordered it to be shot down as soon as he heard about it. But that the military feared the debris from it might be dangerous if it fell on some people below it.
That doesn’t seem like he’s particularly weak.
Some persistent Republicans, though, want to have a full-scale investigation into why nobody popped that balloon before it flew over much of the country.
I thought Marco Rubio would have a heart attack because he was so vexed about the spy-whatever floating above us.
He appeared on ABC’s “This Week” last Sunday, with fresh theories about the purpose of the Chinese balloon. “The United States is a once-great superpower that’s hollowed out, it’s in decline,” Rubio proclaimed. Therefore, according to Rubio, that’s why the Chinese government is sending balloons overhead.
Fortunately, excited Republicans with balloon theories didn’t have the last word about the matter.
As with a lot of news stories covering several continents, there could be a constant churn of new information.
First, it was revealed that at least three Chinese spy balloons had floated over the United States during the Trump years.
Next, it was reported on Fox News that the recently spotted Chinese spy balloon had been blocked from collecting intelligence data, using shields, above sensitive sites as soon as it was detected in the air over the United States.
That’s a good thing.
The best thing, though, was that it was disposed of when an F-22 Raptor fighter jet used a Sidewinder missile to bring it down, while it was six miles off the coast of South Caroline.
Personal note: That plane had been deployed from Langley Air Force Base – the base on which I was stationed during the dark ages – 1970-71. I never saw a balloon when I was stationed there. I hardly had enough time to look at the sky.
Shortly after the balloon was downed, there were pictures of the crew that had been sent to retrieve the debris, hauling it into their boat.
That was last Tuesday afternoon.
By Tuesday evening, when the president was about to give his annual State of the Union address, the kerfuffle over the Chinese spy balloon seemed, well, petty.
Especially since Republicans had other complaints.
From now on you might want to refer to President Joe Biden as “Smokin'” Joe.
He lured Republicans into a political trap during his speech, and they just happened to awkwardly fall for it.
He got heckled during the speech. But he showed why he’s a veteran politician who found himself faced with political novices.
He addressed the hecklers about the need to maintain Social Security and Medicare.
Smokin’ Joe did a masterful job of getting his Republican detractors to agree to leave America’s safety net alone.
Despite the fact, that over the years, there have been serious questions about having to cut them.
It was perhaps Joe’s finest hour.
Edward A. Owens is a multi-Emmy Award winner, former reporter, and anchor for Entertainment Tonight, and 50-year TV news and newspaper veteran. E-mail him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net.