President Obama was battling a rodent for stage presence, in the midst of his battle with the titans of Wall Street
Obama had just begun a White House Rose Garden statement, lauding the end of a Senate filibuster on his financial overhaul, when a rodent dashed out of the bushes by Obama outside of the Oval Office.
As photographers snapped away, the critter scurried straight past Obama's podium with the presidential seal, making a bee-line for another set of bushes to Obama's left.
If the President saw the streaking vermin, he didn't react. Once in the Oval Office, a fierce debate erupted among photographers and reporters who'd witnessed the mad dash. Was it a rat or a mouse? Maybe a mole, or some other kind of related creature.
Before long, experts had joined the debate.
"I would partially rule out rat," said Russell Link, wildlife biologist who works for the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife. "That's due to the lack of a tail that is typically equal to body length." Ok, so rat ruled out.
After viewing a photograph of the surprising scurry, Link said, "My suspicion is it's a vole, commonly called a 'meadow mouse' out our way."
Can we say our White House staff is a bit bored?
Just last week, as camera crews set up for an Obama statement on the Gulf Oil Spill, what's believed to have been the same rodent made a dash across the famous White House garden.
Not like rodents of all kinds aren't common in Washington-Washington is built on what used to be a malarial swamp, along a river.