On television last night President Obama appeared as the only guest on the David Letterman Show as part of his media push to sell health care reform. Also last night, the disgraced former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay made his debut as a contestant on Dancing with the Stars. If you ever think that life is dull and predictable, consider the convergence of these two events and cast your mind back five years ago. Just five years ago Barack Obama was an obscure state legislator from Illinois. You can construct some Letterman monologue joke from that time about the idea of this person becoming the next president of the United States. Tom DeLay was one of the most powerful men in Washington, a feared figure whose plan was to remove all Democratic influence from government. Try to imagine the reaction if anyone had said his next career move would be playing air guitar on a cheesy dance show. Real life can be so amazing.
Photograph of Tom Delay and Cheryl Burke courtesy of ABC.com .
