Early Show's Adoration Of The Obama

Diabetic or not, you might want to have a dose of insulin handy while watching this morning's video clip. The Early Show's review of the past year was one sicky-sweet adoration—in overtly religious terms—of Barack Obama.

Harry Smith set the tone with his opening comments:

"Politics, and patriotism and the presidency: it is the place where the secular and the religious merge. One of the sacraments of our national religion is the inauguration.  So it was that as many as two million pilgrims made their way to Washington and the Mall to witness this most sacred event."

Back to the studio for the personal testimonies of the emotional Early Show crew . . .

SMITH: As profound a moment as I have ever experienced [inaudible].

RUSS MITCHELL: [Turning to Debbye Turner Bell] I hope you don't mind me saying this: you got emotional just watching this.

DEBBYE TURNER BELL: Yeah, I was able to go as a citizen; I didn't have to work that day. Many of my family came to town.  I'm getting emotional just thinking about it. I come from parents who in many cases had to go to segregated schools. My father integrated the university that I eventually attended. So, it's hard to separate the emotion.

MITCHELL: And as I was [inaudible] I thought of the same thing: my parents, the things they went through, things my grandparents, and yet that day, then that day, and yet that today here was an African-American being sworn in as President of the United States.

Even the pallid Dave Price got into the spirit, saying something that brought Lourdes to mind.

DAVE PRICE: You were sitting in that crowd, and you looked around and you saw people who had made it in wheelchairs and walkers on this bitter cold day: the young, the old, every race and creed and sexual orientation there.  And on that day, you felt this overwhelming sense of hope and promise, and I think it didn't matter what party you were a member of, it was the fact that this is a day when America came together --

TURNER BELL: Yes, yes.

PRICE: And celebrated something historic.

SMITH: On the other hand, it didn't last long.

TURNER BELL: The honeymoon was short.

PRICE: Politics takes over.

Damn those sacrilegious Republicans!

But seriously, can anyone imagine that these people, who admit to finding it difficult to "separate the emotion" are capable of fair-'n-balanced coverage of this president?

Note: as if that weren't enough, the next segment was devoted to the story of an adoring photographer who followed Obama throughout the campaign and has produced a photo book imaginatively entitled: "Yes, We Can".