Week in Review

Happy Friday! In my first week back in civilization, the dead heat of summer forced Obama on a jet-setting tour of the Middle East and Europe while celebs Stateside done flipped out. Highlights:

From Baghdad to Paris, Barack is courting the world with his Change We Can Believe In shtick. And for the most part, the world is loving it, though more learned minds remain unconvinced, asking the question: what happens after the motivational speeches? Now I don't like to spoil a wonderful story - I think it's great that 200,000 Berliners stopped by to cheer on an American of any political inclination, but still, hundreds of thousands of protesters in 2004 couldn't oust Bush-Cheney, and Europeans, thankfully, don't control our elections. So I'm hesitant to call a victory here. I mean, it's summer and Obama is one of the world's most exciting celebs, who wouldn't want to go out and see him? Does that mean the White House is his? I'm still not that sure.

Still, I love a well-executed PR program and Obama has masterfully wielded his power over the media to produce shot after shot of himself as a jetset, with-it kinda guy. I could do without the references to JFK, but it's much better than the blasphemous contest Michelle Malkin has got going on her blog where she's asked readers to offer mock-ups for T-shirts of Obama's world tour. I guess it's OK to mock Christ if you're doing it to denigrate Dems.

Speaking of Christ and PR stunts, the media machine at ABC's The View has got Sherri Sheppard shilling for headlines following comments she made to a Christian magazine about having had more abortions than she could count before embracing the Lord. After addressing these comments on the show, and saying she used to feel shame for the number of abortions she'd had, her co-hosts criticized society for making women like Sherri feel bad about their reproductive choices. Call me crazy, but I think women should just be thankful they have reproductive choices for now. Now they want a round of applause, too? Sherri's rantings painted abortion as a callous individual's solution for slutty ways and that's just the kind of fodder right-wing, liberties-snatching fundamentalists love to spit back at Congress when they lobby to put more guns and less condoms on the streets.

Someone who probably wishes she had reproductive choice a few years ago is Christian Bale's mom, who apparently got the beat down from her son, star of the new Batman movie, earlier this week. A dead co-star catapulted the movie to the top of the box office charts last week, trumping Mamma Mia (sniff), let's see if alleged domestic violence ensures a week 2 victory.

But back to politics. The Christian Science Monitor is clamoring "Hillary for VP." Which got me to thinking, my girl's been keeping a low profile these days. Is she over politics? Where she at? I wonder if she took my advice and is somewhere in the South of France. Or the Pines.

Which is where I'd love to be right now. Instead, I'm off to work.