The Daily Background

In Which The Intown Pool Discovers It Is Part of an Elaborate Ruse, And Is Never Actually In The Same Room As POTUS

Julie Hirschfeld Davis

It was a few minutes after your unsuspecting pool had departed the file at Camp David in a minibus to head up to the compound, at 9:10 a.m., when Blackberries and cell phones began buzzing and chirping to herald the news that POTUS was not on the premises, or even in the country, but had instead snuck off the night before on a super-secret trip to Iraq.

Nevertheless, the bewildered pool was deposited at Camp at 9:20 a.m. and led by a Marine into the Evergreen Chapel, where we held for a little under 20 minutes guarded by two Marines holding large guns — one in the balcony and one at the front of the chapel by the pulpit. We were then led down a paved, wooded path, where we held still longer in front of a lodge marked “Laurel,” next to a fleet of golf carts emblazoned with “Camp David.” It was during this wait that one of the White House’s “In Case You Missed It” e-mails flashed across our Blackberry screens telling of Bush’s surprise trip to Baghdad, its subject-line taking on new meaning.

Oh-ho. Y’all just got PUNK’D. By the freaking President of the United States.

Filed under: News Media, Z-TDB Blog