I’m wondering—was I the only blogger to watch both the Academy Awards and the president’s prequel State of the Union Address? Two different worlds, of course, but often they conflate in the mind of this electronic onlooker, especially when you throw in the Obama Administration’s first state dinner with all those fancy gowns.

My reaction when I heard about timing of the dinner was, “They’re going to miss the Oscars.”

Follow up:

Of course, if I listened more closely to Spike Lee, I’d know that African Americans have limited expectations of the Academy. But I hated to think of the Obamas not watching Queen Latifah’s priceless “I’ll Be Seeing You” tribute to the departed. (I still can’t buy a bag of Newman’s Own pretzels without tearing up.) And I hope someone in the White House showed the president Sean Penn’s acceptance speech in which he referred to Obama as “this elegant man.”

The debate about gay marriage has shifted from Washington to Hollywood, where Penn denounced anti-gay demonstrators as haters and reminded the audience to great applause that all of us must have equal rights. The acceptance speech of award-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black in which he said moving to California where Harvey Milk lived convinced him that he could fall in love [with another man] and get married could have come from an Obama campaign testimonial. Still, Democrats haven’t figured out a way to link gay marriage to the stimulus, and Republicans haven’t figured out how to use the issue against it.

On Tuesday we were treated to the President’s own preview of coming attractions. Penn is right; Obama is an elegant man who lends his regal touch to any subject he approaches, but a month into his administration we have no way of knowing if the banking community can be shocked into functionality with any amount of cash or if he picked the right people or approach for the task. (Sounds a little like making a major motion picture, no?)

I have more faith in his intentions toward education, the environment and health care. These are problems whose parameters I understand better; we know the story lines that brought us to the brink of disaster—privatize and trust us. Obama knows that public cash could have a positive effect here, that it isn’t a good thing when classes are interrupted by the passing of a train (at least they’re still running!). And when he says our students aren’t prepared to compete in a global economy, we know he wants to prepare them rather than limit educational access to the financially privileged. So far, there’s no indication that funding will be related to test scores, thank goodness.

There are many things President Obama hasn’t said that I wish he would say, but I find it difficult to argue with what he offers. (“Believe me, I get it,” was refreshing.) I challenge you to find an actor who could deliver a better political speech than the one he delivered this week. And as befits a best-selling author, the president demonstrates respect for the printed word. You could see House Speaker Nancy Pelosi struggle between trying to follow the president’s speech in her printed copy and or giving his oration her full attention. (She finally chose the latter.)

Her grandchildren can fight over the booklet, but at least she didn’t ask Obama on camera to autograph it, as many House members did as the president made his exit. This is one Hollywood touch I could have skipped; someone at PBS predicted that a lot of these would wind up on e-Bay.

Back to the Oscars, I still can’t figure out how a film made in Mumbai by Brits wasn’t considered “foreign,” but who could fail to be delighted that actors who played street children in “Slumdog Millionaire” were standing on the stage in California, on their way to Disneyland? It’s a sober reminder that this financial pickle we’re in is not just ours and that in many ways our hardships are late-felt and comparably less devastating than those of many of our partners in the global economy.

I try to take this into account when Indian immigrant Governor Bobby Jindal offers himself as the anti-Obama, when he insists that the federal government can only bring trouble to Louisiana, that the stimulus is unnecessary, and isn’t it amazing that such a short time after the demise of slavery we elected a man of African descent. Jindal’s ancestral memories are of civilizations much older than ours that still struggle with inequality that dwarfs ours, so perhaps it’s not surprising that the United States seems shiny and new and almost unconditionally welcoming to him. If the federal government failed Louisiana, it’s because Republicans made sure it would. Facts aside, it suits the Republican narrative to give Jindal the stage.

But Republicans can’t simply adopt a member of a model minority or, for that matter, an African American like their chair Michael Steele and make a movie in which they pass themselves off as an inclusive party with no history of playing to racial fears. Some Republicans may delude themselves that taxpayers in New Orleans or Charleston or Baltimore don’t want their unemployment benefits extended or their schools made habitable or their air made cleaner, but it’s difficult to imagine a script in which the deniers come out as heroes.

When the Red Carpet is rolled out and envelopes are opened two years from now, I’m predicting that a whole new cast will replace those members who firmly stuck to their seats rather than applaud Obama’s plan. Even if the outcome is less than unqualified happiness, which is likely, moviegoers and voters alike cherish the narrative of the stranger who comes to town and cleans things up.

Obama’s got the role down pat. He’s already won the pretty girl, and he’s got enough answers to win any game show, which these days substitutes for an armed showdown. At least in the movies.