“Groundhog Day is OURS!!!!!!”

A political scrape of epic proportions was shaping up this week. Not since the Jeremiah Wright fiasco have we seen such a volatile issue boil out of the cracks, seemingly from nowhere. The writing was on the wall, though, if you had the good sense to notice it.

Luckily, the cataclysm was narrowly averted. At Friday’s White House press briefing, Robert Gibbs confidently announced that the State of the Union address would not, in fact, run up against the season premiere of “Lost”.

In his exact words, Mr. Gibbs said, “I don’t foresee a scenario in which millions of people that hope to finally get some conclusion in ‘Lost’ are pre-empted by the president.”

Le Monde must be having a field day with this one. Now we have the President of the United States tailoring his yearly address to the nation with ABC’s Tuesday night line-up in mind.

How was this news received by Lost’s production staff? Damon Lindelof, showrunner and writer for the series, announced joyously on his Twitter feed, “OBAMA BACKED DOWN!!!! Groundhog Day is OURS!!!!!!” The Losties (as followers of the show call themselves), who went into full hissy fit mode where there was even a hint of the president pushing back the long-awaited explanation of last year’s season finale, erupted into a veritable orgy of self-congratulations. Apparently their grass-roots efforts in Facebook turned the tide.