The Press to Obama: It wasn't what you said, it's what you didn't say

To Old To Work, Too Young To Retire - as is to be expected from a Leader of Men - starts a new meme, about the Press starting to wake up to who Obama really is (Cliff's Notes version: they don't like it). Except TOTWTYTR uses B.B. King's The Thrill Is Gone:

I'll leave you with a musical interlude for Sunday. It's not even Country-Western, but with a little re-arranging it could be. That's a post for a different day, though.

The rest of the Blogosphere, of course, picks up on a good idea. Tom Maguire looks at the train wreck that is the New York Times and wonders:

Isn't there some pop song out there with a lyric something like "We said good-bye the day we met"? There should be! Or maybe I'm reading from the Times reporter handbook.

Tom, don't know about Pop, but Country is, well, a target rich environment. The problem is not whether there is a song; the problem is that there are so many songs, how can you choose? As a full-service Redneck/Snark blog, allow me to immodestly offer a Smörgåsbord of Country "I didn't realize you were like that" songs.

To start, there are the angry/breaking up songs. Two stand out, in the you-done-me-wrong sense. Montgomery Gentry has Gone:

This ain't no give it time, I'm hurtin' but maybe we can work it out,
uh uh uh
Won't be no champagne, red rose, romance, second chance,
uh uh uh
This is gone. Gone. Gone.

Ah, but not quite right - the Administration didn't leave the press. Jo Dee Messina captures the "I'm tired of waiting" that the press is feeling:

Bye bye love, I'll catch you later
Got a lead foot down on my accelerator and the rearview mirror torn off
I ain't never lookin' back. And that's a fact.
I've tried all I can imagine
I've begged and pleaded in true lover's fashion
I've got pride, I'm takin' it for a ride

Still not quite right. After all, it's not that Obama hasn't committed to the press, it's that they're starting to see through the act. It's disappointment. Trisha Yearwood gets closer, in Trying To Love You:

The secrets I have kept
The nights I haven't slept
I've laughed until I've wept
Trying to love you

Trying to love you...No one's come as close or gone so far
Trying to love you...I've lost and found myself in who you are
Trying to love you...So easy and so hard, trying to love you

Alas, she blows it at the end - the Press isn't sure they'll Always Love Him. Disqualified.

Reba is always a go-to player for a good done-me-wrong song. And she delivers, with I Wish That I Could Tell You, about a love that's fracturing:

I don't know how you leave it all behind
I wish that I could tell you
Is it true a heart heals itself with time
I wish that I could tell you
How do you choose
Do you hurt 'em with the truth or with a lie
Where do you go to find the courage
You know I could never find
I don't know how to help you
I wish that I could tell you
How to tell me goodbye

This song works. But there's another that captures the sadness, the lack of understanding, the simple despair that things will never be That Way again. Mary Chapin Carpenter hits precisely the right note in What You Didn't Say:

So why do I feel confused
Why do I feel so used
Like a worn-out thought you threw away
It wasn't what you said, it's what you didn't say

Where are the windows, where are the doors?
I haven't the key to your heart anymore
I haven't a clue to what's gone wrong

'Cause you look at me sometimes as if I weren't there
You say you're listening, but you never hear
The strains of silence have grown so strong

I never wanted to doubt you
But I'd be better off without you

So there's your 5 minutes of Redneck Wisdom, for the ink-stained scribblers of the Fourth Estate. Don't worry guys, they'll be others that break your hearts, too. Lots of others.