Who’s In The House

Why photos of the White House gatecrashers (1, 2, 3, 4) — otherwise, a superficial story lapping up attention in a holiday news vacuum — have impact.

1. Speak to ever-widening gap between “two Americas” and how much the well-connected and so-called “beautiful people” seem to come and go as they please.

2. Are evidence samples how low-brow media is turning America into one big reality show.

3. Visualize terrifying possibility anybody could get this close to the president. (Is “the nose” and the guy “under Tareq’s chin” Secret Service?)

And then, there’s the right-wing spin: With Obama now fully owning the war, the deficit, the economic meltdown and basket-full of other issues he’s put on the agenda, how much does telegenic Prez have a handle on his house?

(10:15 PST – slightly revised)

(photo: Samantha Appleton/White House. White House caption: President Barack Obama greets Michaele and Tareq Salahi during a receiving line in the Blue Room of the White House before the State Dinner with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India, Nov. 24, 2009.)