Philip Levine was named poet laureate of the United States.

A worthy honor, no doubt.

But let's look at comments from average Americans left at the bottom of the AP news story (typos all their own):

Says a guy named Jim from Wisconsin:
Why is this a paid position? In fact why do we need some dude being the national poet? The position was created in a time when the Art & Culture events were not widely available. We have thousands of poets every day blasting through the Ipods and MP3's. Time to retire this position in the name of cost cutting. If I want a left wing poet, I toss on some Bob Dylan or Neil Young. If I am in a right wing mood, out comes the Ted Nugent with a little Cat Scratch Fever poetry. If I am in the party wing mode out comes the AC/DC poetry.

That's right. The Ipods.


Says a guy nicknamed Geomonster:
A poet laureate? This administration would have done better with a Fairy tale laureate.No matter the political party,why in the world do we need a Poet laureate in the first place?Give me a break, a poet laureate!.What exactly does a poet laureate do for 35 grand a year?.Does he hop out of bed in the morning and get right down to the serious business of writing poetry?
OOOH,I better write some good poetry(if there is such a thing) today or the president will fire me.
Not one second should be spent on lunacy like this while the country is on the verge of bankruptcy.

Or maybe we just need a poet laureate to remind people posting comments on online news stories not to use periods after a question mark or exclamation points.