#1 Is it the only template in the White House speechwriters’ computer? "Few would have foreseen at the Elamite sack of Ur/Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow/the [beating with a wet noodle] of the Archduke Franz-Ferdinand/the passage of the Dubrovnik Airport Parking Lot Expansion Bill that one day I would be standing before you talking about how few would have foreseen that one day I would be standing before you."
Some years ago, when Ellen DeGeneres came out as a [non-heterosexual] and ensuing episodes of her sitcom grew somewhat overly preoccupied with the subject, Elton John remarked: "Okay, we know you’re gay. Now try being funny." I wonder if Sir Elton might be prevailed upon to try a similar pitch at the next all-star White House gala: Okay, we know you’re black. Now try being president. But a few days later Obama dropped in on U.S. troops at Osan Air Base in South Korea for the latest episode of The Barack Obama Show (With Full Supporting Chorus). "You guys make a pretty good photo op," he told them. |