(HOST) Commentator Bill Seamans has been thinking about the recent incident between the president and the fly – and whether or not we should read anything into it beyond – well – the obvious.
(SEAMANS) Was he an ordinary fly like the ones we the people swat at home or was he a Super Fly who definitely was not a Democrat and maybe even something more ominous?
Conspiracy theorists would not accept a rational explanation. They noted that President Obama is sealed in a security bubble that was thought to be impenetrable. Then how, they asked, did the Fly get by the Secret Service, penetrate the White House, go directly to the room where Obama was being interviewed and buzz around his face as if sighting on a target? Was the Fly another of those incredible assassins trained by those Russian intelligence geniuses to attack with a poisoned sting?
Yes, it sure sounded like it was a dull weekend for the pundits. On the "serious" side, however, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, who is always on the look out for the unusual, said that what happened between the President and the Fly had what she called "a mystical, metaphorical dimension." Did she see a "mystical" power guiding Obama’s "coolness" – that perhaps Iran was the "metaphorical dimension" in the advent of the Fly?
President Obama, as we know, has been severely criticized lately by Republicans for not speaking out forcefully against the bloody suppression of the Tehran demonstrations. Lindsey Graham called Obama "timid and passive." John McCain said he wants to see a stronger president. And Chuck Grassley charged that Obama "risks undermining the aspirations of the Iranian voters." The White House replied that Obama was playing it cool to prevent President Ahmadinejad from blaming the U.S. to divert attention from his allegedly fraudulent reelection.
Or did that "mystical" power send the Fly to enable Obama to demonstrate how forceful he could be? As the Fly annoyingly hovered around Obama’s face the President interrupted the interview. He first said , "Hey, get out of here." Was that a metaphorically cool response to Ahmedinejad? But the Fly persisted and with lazer-like accuracy and the reflexes of a basketball player, Obama reached out, caught and crushed the Fly and dropped his corpse on the floor. Obama said, "I got the sucker" – again perhaps a metaphorical Ahmedinejad?
Stephen Colbert called it "a shocking murder in the White House." It’s My guess is that the cutting criticism by Colbert, and the Republicans, of course, uncooled Obama so much that in his news conference yesterday he said he strongly condemned and deplored the violence against the demonstrators.
So that’s the story of the Fly so far except for one detail – those savoring a conspiracy suggest that the Secret Service has performed an autopsy on the Fly and are keeping the results secret.