The Canonization of Obama and the Disappearance Act of Pelosi


Guests this week were: David Gregory, epitome of White House Press Corps objectivity and civility of NBC News, Andrew Sullivan, senior editor, "The New Republic," and columnist, "Time" and E.J. Dionne, senior fellow at The Brookings Institution, Washington Post columnist; enough said in that case.

After three weeks of back to back academic conferences on Latin America and History, if I hear the words "hegemony", "colonial", "gender", "imagined" and "narrative" one more time, my head will spin around like the girl in The Exorcist and the walls of my office will be decorated in pea soup green! But thanks to the DR Show archives I was able to catch up and move from current academic clichés of otherwise useful concepts to the at least reliable 3-1 ratio of panelists on my favorite radio show.

Yes, last week’s Gang-up lightly mentioned the name Harry Reid in connection with a list of simmering scandals in D.C. but that was it. The question of why the media is not giving the Reid questionable dealings the same amount of time as given to the Foley scandal was not addressed. This week was practically non-existent.

Moving on to other topics:

Eerily reminiscent of Time’s cover of O.J. Simpson minus the intentional darkening of that photo, we are witnessing a process of canonization not only via photo editing of Sen. Obama but through a P.R. blitz in the rest of the media. As O.J. Simpson was made to look darker and sinister by the Photo Shop artists at Time, Mr. Obama appeared glowing, almost surrounded by a halo in a Time cover a week ago. It looks like if he were running for President next week he would win over Hillary, at least if only the media voted.

Like lately about Fidel, we have neither heard about Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s all but disappearance from public. Apparently she is alive and not really missing since there are no indications that police reports of a missing person have been filed by her family or staff. Apparently she did appear on “60 Minutes” last night but in this world of liberal paranoia we are not sure if that was really her. Yet according to The New York Times in a recent interview with The Associated Press, she was asked which suite of offices she would use as speaker, and they report she said with a laugh, “I’ll have any suite I want.” That sounds like the real Mrs. Pelosi, so yes, most likely she is alive.

We are looking forward to the inauguration of the two-hour weekly Gang-up, especially as it dedicates the second hour to international affairs, my forte. However, we wonder who will be in that panel, maybe a member of Al Jazzera, one from Granma and one from Le Monde?