Jeff Greenfield is senior analyst for CNN. He will provide Web-exclusive analysis during Election 2000.

Jeff Greenfield: Enough already

By Jeff Greenfield/CNN

April 25, 2000
Web posted at: 11:29 a.m. EDT (1529 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Could everyone just...find something else to talk about for a few days?

Could those of you who believe that God personally stepped in to save this little boy please stay silent until you have figured out why God decided the little boy's mother should drown? I confess the theological assumptions baffle me.

Could those of you who proclaim that the little boy will be returning to a progressive, caring nation -- including writers and clerics -- please re-read Chapters One through 346 of: "Utopian Fantasies of Leninist Police States"?

Could all of those child psychologists who are analyzing the emotional and mental state of the little boy please bite their tongues unless they have actually spent, say, 15 minutes or more in private conversation with the little boy?

Could the political analysts who purport to measure the electoral fallout from this story remind their audiences that the election is more than six months away?

Could those of us who are not Cuban-Americans try to understand that, for many in that community, Fidel Castro's Cuba is a state to which no one should be returned?

Could the Cuban-American community discourage those in its ranks who a) assume that anyone who disagrees with them is evil or corrupt; b)threaten the lives of those who disagree with them; and c) spread blatant falsehoods about matters of plain fact -- e.g., those "doctored photos"?

Could we find a single politicians who will say: "Since I have nothing constructive to offer in the way of advice or guidance, I respectfully decline to offer an opinion in this case"?

Could a single newscast, broadcast or cable, begin its program by announcing: "There's nothing new in this case, so we will bring you other news that has been crowded out by our obsessive coverage"?

Naaah.