Even Barack Obama Won't Screw With The Island

Yes, the President's State of the Union address is important -- it's a good way for Americans to learn what stupid initiatives we'll be paying for this year, and allows TV talking heads to talk over one another while pretending that most people give a rat's ass about what the President said.

But some things are more important...

The president of the United States apparently feels he needs the "Lost" voting bloc and therefore will not schedule his State of the Union address the same night that ABC had planned to air the two-hour season debut of the second-most-convoluted drama series in the history of TV.

"I don't foresee a scenario in which millions of people who hope to finally get some conclusion with 'Lost' are preempted by the president," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters at Friday's White House press briefing.

"You can quote a senior administration official," he added.

This, in response to not one, not two, but three questions about the brewing Obama/"Lost" faceoff that were asked at the briefing by various reporters in the employ of ABC who apparently lack the gene for "embarrassed."

"Lost" fanatics had their undies in a bunch Wednesday over news that the White House might push back the president's SOTU address to Feb. 2 to enable Obama to use a freshly signed health-care reform law as an audiovisual aid.

First of all, a hearty FU to the Post reporter who thinks Lost is convoluted. It's beyond convoluted. But it's also brilliant.

Second, who schedules the State of the Union for Groundhog's Day anyway? I think my new version of hell would be waking up each morning to a new Obama speech touting the health care bill. Actually, that feels like it's already happening.

More importantly, if the President had pushed back his SOTU to show off the Frankenstein's monster known as healthcare reform while also pre-empting Lost... well, I'm not sure what I might have done. Maybe call the Smoke Monster.