To somebody my age of 74, the last twenty years seems a short span of time. Now I look as old as I did twenty years ago.
With Bush, there was Scott McClellan, who seemed to do a presentable job, and any misgivings probably arising from the administration's choices and actions.
Then, with Obama, there was a series: Robert Gibbs, Jay Carney and Josh Earnest. They all made a professional mark for themselves. I was satisfied with their work.
After that, we had Trump's press secretaries. Sean Spicer had several embarrassing moments, some disagreements with Trump, and an appearance of being uncomfortable with the mendacity he was charged to pursue in his rocky relationship with the press. Sarah Huckabee Sanders was a disaster, promulgating all sorts of nonsense and lies, and her demeanor was terrible. She seemed to broadcast Trump's own disdain for the press, and even an attitude that weekly press briefings were unnecessary and just part of a White House tradition not worthy of future pursuit.
I do not even remember Stephanie Grisham, and now I understand why. She never conducted a single press briefing during her tenure as "press secretary".
Finally, there's the object of my perpetual desire to flog someone, going back to the time of the campaign in which she appeared as a press spokesperson -- Kayleigh McEnany, whom I like to call "Kayleigh Smack-a-Ninny." My disdain for McEnany derives from the fact that she is willing to say anything, to tell any lie, no matter how outrageous. Yet she was a graduate of Georgetown University and Harvard.
In my view, she is a blot on the reputations of those institutions. Universities were established as forums for scholars to seek the Truth, and people who are both educated and intelligent should have a principled regard for the Truth.
Smack-a-Ninny has neither a reputation for seeking the Truth, nor a principled regard for it. It just proves my theory about the random nature of career success. In an ideal world, Smack-a-Ninny would not be rewarded for her lies and dissembling, or her lack of professionalism. But this is not an ideal world, and there are thousands of people walking around who have much more on the ball than Smack-a-Ninny -- in the pursuit of just about any career I could imagine. Perhaps she should've been a criminal attorney, able to lie and distort in any way possible to achieve an acquittal for a criminal client.
The world would've been better served even for her success in that vocation. Or at least my television set would've been put at less risk, if I weren't so much tempted by Kayleigh to throw a beer bottle at it after listening to her drivel for five minutes.