There's No Escaping the Obamas

You know how you sometimes have a dream where you are being relentlessly pursued? Some nameless dread is after you, dogging your heels, through hallways and doorways and across fields and meadows, and when you've fallen and are just about to be overtaken, you wake up? That dread has a name. It is Michelle Obama.

I watched the Oscars last night, the Academy Awards, as we used to say. Is is unusual in itself. I doubt that I have sat down to watch the awards in at least two decades, maybe more. (Gone With the Wind was best picture which year exactly??) Anyway, it was a slow night, so I figured I'd watch it just to take the temperature of the culture and my waning knowledge of it.

And for those of you who watched it, you know where this is going. Out of the blue, without warning, the biggest award of the night, best picture, and there is Jack Nicholson to present it. Now, Jack's a big deal and been around a long time, so no big surprise there! And then he introduces, via video, FLOTUS Michelle Obama to announce the winner.

My first thought was, "OMG! Is there no sporting event or television show that POTUS and FLOTUS will not insert themselves?" It's bad enough that Superbowl Sunday has to be tarnished with an annual sit down with the president, the day of the game. When did this start? I don't remember either Bush or Clinton or any president being asked his opinion of anything on Superbowl Sunday. Yes, there's a lot of pre-game hours to fill with the proverbial interview with the quarterback's grandmother, but, when did it get political? I mean it was not unusual for a president to give a congratulatory phone call after the game, but otherwise, it wasn't his day. It was a day about the game.

Likewise, last night, Hollywood of all people should know that movies are escapism. Their stock and trade is to divert people from thinking about life how it is and getting them to stop thinking for a while. So, on a night where glamor and celebrity reign, here is a politician's wife crashing the party. (I don't care if she was invited, IMHO she was out of place.) The Oscars are to get you thinking about the movies. The movie I heard mentioned most in connection with Michelle's appearance was a comparison to Big Brother in "1984".

I'm told that when Michelle's shining face appeared, there were audible groans from the press box backstage. I can believe it. I was groaning myself. Barry and Michelle are the most overexposed First Couple ever. Jackie O was on TV...occasionally. Never to extent of our current FLOTUS.

And it's not just a liberal thing. There were libs on stage all night. Even their queen, Barbra Streisand showed up, as did Hanoi Jane Fonda. But, they were entertainers first and liberals second. They'd earned a spot on the stage.

I even say that at the risk of some snot nosed, brain dead race-baiter coming up and saying, "Well then, it must be because she's black!" No, it's not because of her race, or her looks, or anything like that. It's because she and her husband are ubiquitous. There's just no getting away from them. If Barry could have started the Daytona 500 without getting booed, he probably would have been there, too!

There's an old show business adage, Mr. and Mrs. Obama, that says, 'always leave them wanting more'. In the immortal words of Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks, how can we miss you when you won't go away?

If I can channel my inner Siskel and Ebert: Two thumbs down, Mrs. O.