The White House gets crunk up in this joint

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a massive political dork.  In fact, I am such a political dork I have a blog using my dorkitude to explain politics to people that don’t share my — well, let’s just call it “passion.” Most people, for instance, upon being told that that Brian Williams (who timeshares being my favorite non-fake news anchor with Rachel Maddow) would be hosting a two hour special about life in the Obama White House would have, like the rest of my family, rolled their eyes and turned to the baseball game. And I? I set my DVR and eagerly awaited until no one was around to make fun of how excited I got while I watched it.

What I had hoped for is what every political nerd hopes for — a re-enactment of The West Wing that has the side benefit of being entirely real. I wanted to jump to meetings and perhaps see Rahm Emanuel cut a bitch. I wanted to watch meetings and see the process of how people worked while simultaneously ogling my two favorite White House hotties, Reggie Love and Jon Favreau. (Hey, either of you — I’m single and would be totally okay with your long hours. Call me?)

What I got was slightly different.

This is not to say it was bad — in fact, it was pretty much bordering on awesome. But it was different from what I was expecting. It certainly had West Wing moments, but it was sort of like The West Wing 2.0, and by 2.0 I mean “The lovechild of Aaron Sorkin and MTV Cribs.”

There were the polarized, extremely over-colored “holy crap look how awesome this stuff is that costs a bazillion dollars!” shots, not to mention the absolutely hilarious music choices. (My personal favorite? Upon viewing the president we were treated to Gwen Stefani and Eve singing “Let Me Blow Ya Mind.” Now, my mind is regularly blown by this president for a lot of great reasons (unlike Bush, where it was for a lot of bad reasons).  Particularly lately, after his stellar speech from Cairo, I am beyond blown away. I am in love. I sort of watched the entire thing like I was some sort of anime character with my eyes in the shape of luminescent hearts. But still, Eve and Gwen Stefani? Really, Brian Williams? That is almost as disappointing as the fact that I thought Right Said Fred’s “I’m Too Sexy” was playing in the background for the Rahm Emanuel segment when it, in fact, was not.

As the music choices may suggest, Brian Williams spent a lot of the time oohing and ahing over the new administration and how hip and happening it was with all of it’s young hottie staffers, not to mention how he seems similarly afflicted with what I will, from here on out, refer to as “hearty eyes syndrome.”

That’s not to say he didn’t point out a whole bunch of inevitable ridiculousness (Obama is long winded, Rahm is kind of a douchebag, sometimes Robert Gibbs’ press conference talking points backfire, the sky is blue, the grass is green, etc., etc.), but it’s pretty clear that he, like a majority of the country, has fallen victim to how delightfully charming this president (and his entire staff/family) are. I mean, the main snacks of the west wing are apples and M&Ms. How adorably five years old is that? It’s like they’re in kindergarten. Only it’s totally awesome political kindergarten.

But the star of the show was not the president, or first lady, or Rahm Emanuel. No, easily the hugest star of this entire two hour special was the new first puppy, Bo.  And Brian Williams was utterly infatuated with him and not even doing a good job of hiding it. I mean I don’t blame him, because that dog is freaking adorable. But my suggestion to Brian Williams is that, if you are interviewing the first lady or president, perhaps you shouldn’t be so obvious that what you’re really doing is scratching their dog behind the ears. I mean, that’s what I would do, but this is why I’m me, not NBC’s star news anchor.

After these two hours (which re-airs tonight at 8 on NBC with “added footage”, apparently), were this administration any other administration, I would have been bored. I would have shaken my head, sighed, and wondered why I had foregone watching, say, a Daisy of Love or Clean House re-run. But thanks to this administration, with all the lovely people and stories (and puppies) that it has to offer, I find myself running to NBC’s site and watcing exclusive web content and re-watching the entire thing from beginning to end. I even find myself sort of appreciating the music. For Bush or Clinton, it might have been a little much. But the underlying message, I think, is that this is now a modern, dope-ass White House, to which I say — word.

Clacked by Julia Hass
on Jun 05, 2009 @ 18:00 EST5EDT