The Town Hall Readers Series

Life here at the tail end of Florida, with its balmy weather and gentle breezes, has a way of lulling one into a semi stupor, especially if you don't turn on the television and put those broker statements in the drawer to read later. So when the Town Hall Series of Distinguished Speakers brought P.J. O'Rourke to town, many of us saw it as an opportunity to hear this conservative/libertarian /writer/journalist hand it to the Democrats and listen to a master satirist throw cold water on the persistence of Obamamania. O'Rourke, is a witty, nay funny and eminently quotable writer who knows how to stick a sharp pin in the left wing's hot air balloon. Putting him in front of an audience of right wing fat cat (the poor folk weren't buying tickets at these prices) retirees, many of whom also shell out extra to attend an elbow-rubbing drinks and dinner event after the talk, had slam-dunk written all over it. Think of the cocktail party chatter spawned from this get together, as in: "As I said to P.J. O'Rourke the other night,........"

The talk began with some red meat as O'Rourke asked if it were too soon to begin discussing the failed Obama presidency? This was followed by some analysis of why the Democrats were on the wrong track, but mostly he cited the fact that they are, well, Democrats. It was shortly after this that the talk began to take on the tightly knit syntax of one of O'Rourke's columns. Moreover, due to the two huge monitors flanking the dais, we were able to see clearly that our boy appeared to be reading his remarks. Hmmm. His rapid fire delivery was entertaining, but taking notes became a challenge.

In preparing this post, I found that my notes were a little sketchy and I needed some additional background to flesh the piece out. Imagine my surprise when I found O'Rourke's November 17, 2008 ARTICLE from the Weekly Standard and realized that a large chunk of his talk consisted of him reading this article, verbatim. Now don't get me wrong, I am a big fan of P.J. and the man can write entertaining prose, but on some level, especially given what I had shelled out for the ticket, I felt like I'd been had. I expected better.

At the start of the evening, Co-Producer of the event, Rick Borman, spoke at some length about the intense quality of the Speaker Series and how he feels that it is one of the best such series in the entire country, and certainly better than those poseurs up in Sarasota. Clearly, this was an effort to placate the first few rows of the audience who had shelled out $4,000 to be at the Benefactor-level. He then went on to near ecstasy about the fact that President George W. Bush and his brother Jeb, were already booked as speakers for the February 16, 2010 event. get those subscriptions in right away.

I wouldn't mind hearing George Bush speak and I know that Jeb was a popular governor here in the Sunshine State. But I wonder whether they will deliver well-crafted, incisive and informative talks, or will they read excerpts from their mother's dog book? who knows. In addition, the other three speakers for next year are not yet announced. Given that one of this year's speakers was Mia Farrow, that might be additional information one might want to have before firing off that subscription renewal. Oh well, nothing, I guess, is perfect, except, perhaps, the Naples weather in non-hurricane season. But as I was saying to P.J. O'Rourke the other night,.........