Light in the Middle of the Tunnel

No one told us it would be boring, but it is. We're talking here about the Obama presi-dency. Having an adulterer and a moron at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for eight years apiece, plus Dick Cheney down the corridor, spoiled us. Which side of Bill's head did Hillary hit with the lamp? Would George fight his way to the end of the sentence in his daily battles with the English language?

These days tranquillity reigns--or seems to--in the Obamas' private quarters. Senior White House staffers remain loyal and tight-lipped. Small wonder Jay Leno's nightly show is sagging. There was nothing to make jokes about, at least until Sarah Palin went on her book tour.

Carter was another Democratic president who didn't drink or fornicate or steal. But he had brother Billy and the colorful Bert Lance as his director of OMB, already mired in Southern Gothic scandal by the middle of Carter's first year in office. He had the late Hamilton Jordan as his chief of staff, getting drunk at state dinners and making lewd verbal overtures to the wife of the Egyptian ambassador. Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, may be foul-mouthed, but thus far he's run a ship offering about as much drama as the upper executive tier of an insurance company in Ames, Iowa.

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