Bloviate

bloviate
verb. To talk at length, especially in an inflated or empty way.

John and Donna settled into their recliners for the national evening news. They had arrived home from work half an hour ago. Donna had turned off the crock pot and put rolls into the oven. Supper would be ready in ten minutes. Both were looking forward to enjoying it while catching up on the day's events.

After a brief introduction, the host announced that the President would be making a special announcement. Donna sighed inwardly and began to cast about for something she could use as a distraction. She was so tired of that man and his empty, self-aggrandizing speeches. How he had gotten re-elected was beyond her. Simply beyond.

John expressed what she was feeling, out loud and in terms no one could mistake: "Not again! He never says anything worth hearing. Why do they give him time on the news when so much is happening in the world that's important--worth learning about?" He settled into his chair, fuming, the bliss of being home after the workday spoiled.

Donna looked at her knitting, but decided to leave it in the basket for now. She would have to get the rolls out in a few minutes anyway.

"Try the other channels," she suggested.

John picked up the remote and clicked through the major networks. All were airing national news now and all were showing the leader making his speech. John set down the remote resignedly.

"Do you want me to turn it off?"

"I guess not. Maybe, for once, he'll say something we need to know."

She might have saved her breath. The man on the screen bloviated, as usual, on a topic she and John had discussed at length over the past two weeks. Despite new information they had taken into account, the speech might as well have been made a month ago. Once this leader fixed on a position, he rarely changed it. To John and Donna's chagrin, his decisions almost never agreed with what they thought would be the best course for the country.

Definitions adapted from The New Oxford American Dictionary, Oxford University Press, Inc., 2005 (eBook Edition, copyright 2008), and from Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam Company, Publishers, Springfield, Massachusetts, USA, 1965, depending on which is more convenient to hand.