The other day I was watching The American President. What I like best about the movie is the 90s version of political drama. Like my high school 90s experience, everything in the movie is way melodramatic for what’s actually happening.

Michael Douglas is trying to pass a crime bill. If only hand guns were our big problem! And Annette Bening is lobbying for environmental reform. (Well I guess that’s still an issue.) And the best part of the movie is when Michael Douglas finally speaks up for his girlfriend—who Richard Dreyfus as Cheney before we knew who Cheny was has called a whore—and he’s like, “this country has real problems,” when the only problems are vague crime bill legislation.

This is all to say I don’t envy the security/terrorism/civil liberty mess that Obama is in.