Roman Around

This is not an indictment on President Obama’s inability to open a window he thought was a door. After all, he’s only been at his new place of residence for nine days now. It takes a while to memorize where all the handles are. I empathize with the new Commander-In-Chief.

The whole thing is actually quite amusing in a “Messiahs-Are-People-Too” kind of way.

I would rather focus on how the media is portraying this – if they are at all – and compare it to George W. Bush’s now infamous incident of pulling on a locked door when attempting to exit a press conference in China in November, 2005.

he can "handle" it

Headlines such as this one from the BBC appeared all over the place: “Door Thwarts Quick Exit For Bush.”

The Washington Post said: “For Bush in Beijing, It’s Hard to Get Out.”

In Sydney, Australia, the Morning Herald headline read: “One door closes, another opens for Bush.”

Hey, no complaints here. Wordplay, puns and jokes are all fair game.

Bloggers, too, had a field day, as you might expect – although sentiments weren’t quite as measured. One particularly articulate keyboard tapper at JREGrassroots.com at the time posted:

“I saw the funniest report on President Bush on the news in my part of the world. He was attending some boring press conference in China and decided he wanted to end things. George went to the doors and tried to open them, NOT REALIZING THEY WERE LOCKED. HA HA! The idiot had to be shown where the correct exit was! I was laughing my ass off! This dufus is the leader of the free world? God help us all!”

Again, no big deal.

Now, let’s see how President Obama’s re-entry gaffe is portrayed.

At the UK telegraph.com website, their coverage may be an indication of the kid gloves approach being applied to The One.

No puns, no bad jokes. Nothing.

In fact, a caption under one of the pictures there actually reads: “Barack Obama’s White House has a more relaxed feel.”

The headline, too, is so clinical, so literal, so antiseptic. No wordplay whatsoever:

“Barack Obama mistakes window for door at White House – Barack Obama has been photographed mistaking a window for a door as he tried to enter the White House.”

Gee, how exciting. How riveting.

Pulitzer Prize anyone?

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Update: 29 January 2009 8:33 PM

A Blogger at Free Republic.com called RushIsMyTeddyBear reminded me of this admittedly fake but nontheless amusing Obama pic from the campaign. If this had been George W. Bush, it would have been issued as a t-shirt/nightgown set by Move On.org.

A million thanks to Arkady for reminding me that the picture had been “photoshopped.”

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