Last week, I saw women screaming and pointing fingers, hurling F-bombs, being thrown off a TV set and even ordered out of the building. Did my channel surfing land on The Jerry Springer Show? No, we’re talking about ABC’s The View, which has somehow made it to its 21st season.
Created by TV legend Barbara Walters, The View has been a daytime staple for the network and survived a revolving door of changing panelists through the years. Whoopi Goldberg joined as the lead panelist in 2007 and can more than hold her own with anyone – including last week’s guest (and former judge) Jeanine Pirro who was there to promote her new book.
The fact that Pirro’s book is titled “Liars, Leakers, and Liberals” might give you a clue that things were not going to go well with the predominantly “left wing” panel. Whoopi got into it with Pirro and the rest is history, although it probably just boosted ratings.
So, to maintain sanity amidst all this madness, I like to visit my friend Aldo’s barber shop. There, you’ll find a cross-section of people whose opinions often provide an accurate reading of our nation’s pulse. Topics will range from football (World Cup style, not NFL) to politics, with the latter inevitably leading to President Trump.
According to the barber shop “roundtable,” Trump has much in common with bad tennis players – he makes too many unforced errors. They note that his tweets often provide ammunition to his enemies, especially the ones that should have been edited, and they don’t seem to necessarily be fans of Trump the Man. However, despite the tweets – and the verbal gaffes – these customers say to watch what he does, not what he says – feeling that his actions overall have been effective.
And in the views expressed from the barber shop, they’ll leave it up to the First Lady to judge President Trump’s alleged marital infidelity, while pointing to the proven dalliances of several Democratic presidents. Summing up: The barber shop contingent, while best described as cynical about all things political, still basically considered Trump – for all his faults – to be preferable to the likely agenda of a Hillary Clinton administration. Next stop: November and the 2018 midterm elections. Stay tuned.