Rodent Shows at Presidential Briefing, Press Squeals and Giggles

This article is from the archive of our partner .

Obama's statement in the Rose Garden Thursday got blogosphere attention when a rodent ran across the steps a few feet in front of the president. The story got written up everywhere from the Associated Press to the New York Post. In photos, the creature looks a bit small to be a rat, but that didn't stop bloggers from having a field day with the supposed symbolism.

• It's Sort of Like The Departed  Stephen Spruiell at National Review writes a paragraph or two about Scorsese, calling the rat at the end of The Departed "a perfectly ironic wink-and-a-nod letting the audience in on the joke" of the melodrama. "This is all by way of saying, ha ha," he explains, pasting in part of the story about the rat at the press briefing.

• He 'Felt At Home'  Slate's Jon Dickerson quips, "Rodent runs by as Obama speaks in Rose Garden. There were reporters in the audience so he must have felt at home."

• The Internal White House Debate  ABC's Jake Tapper investigates:

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said today that it was clear to him what type of rodent appeared near President Obama in the Rose Garden yesterday: “where I’m from, it’s a rat,” he said.

Gibbs scoffed at the suggestion from Reggie Love, President Obama’s special assistant and personal aide, that the creature was a “field mouse.”

When asked if the rodent might have been a vole, Gibbs admitted he had never heard of a vole.

• Are We Surprised?  Conservative blogger Sister Toldjah takes the easy route: "Well it's still a swamp, and it’s still infested with all kinds of rats, especially the kind that look like humans who, strangely enough, have been put into positions of 'leadership.' And they don’t all come from our country, either."

• And at a Briefing about Financial Regulatory Reform, No Less  Clifton B at Another Black Conservative agrees that it was "very fitting." He doesn't think the financial regulatory reform changes on the table address the important matters. "Come November 2nd the voters get to play exterminator," he cackles.

• 'We Need a First Cat,' decides John Cole at Balloon Juice.

• It's Coming  "The rat has signed a two-book, five-figure deal with Farrar, Straus and Giroux to write about its time with Obama," snickers Gawker's Adrian Chen.

• I Have Four Things to Say  Ann Althouse gets the prize for most original commentary on this one. Here are her first two points:
  

1. It wasn't a rat. It was a vole.
2. Our own animal nature is revealed by the way we are distracted by animals. We are critters too, and we have a sharp eye for prey, even when it's something we don't eat anymore.

• Type of Rodent: Discuss!  Press Secretary Robert Gibbs's Twitter feed links to the Wikipedia entry for "vole." 

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.