SCRAP: Swept by the euphoria that engulfed Filipinos everywhere after Manny Pacquiao beat into scrap metal the once golden boy Oscar de la Hoya last Sunday, I had wanted to write about this “Mismatch of the Century” (the clever banner of PhilSTAR).

But everybody and his barber have beaten me to it. Everything that I wanted to say had been said.

So let me share instead some items on another victor, Barack Obama, who has been swept to the crest of a historic wave poised to wash over the face of America, and potentially also of the rest of the world.

* * *

BLACK LINE: Dido Rp <rp.dido777@yahoo.com> asked in his DidoSphere last Dec. 12: “You know what would really piss off the Democrats?” His answer:

“1. George W. Bush resigns now.

“2. Then Dick Cheney becomes President (that would really piss off the libs)!

“3. Then Cheney nominates Condoleezza Rice as Vice President. The Democratic majority does not yet have enough votes to block the nomination.

“4. Then Cheney resigns two weeks later and Rice, a Republican, becomes the first BLACK President!”

* * *

ODD SNUB: I like this piece from Joey Tabaco <joet@tabacofamily.com>:

“Obama snubbed the Philippines? Please.

“Excuse me for being an entire month late in throwing my two cents into this issue, but the story that Barack Obama supposedly snubbed Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is sounding more and more ridiculous with each passing day, which is doubly infuriating because I’m totally aware that I’m the only one still paying any attention.

“Despite the fact that this falsehood has ceased to be a ripe issue and has tragically lapsed into the realm of conventional wisdom, allow me a moment to sort out the facts as a sort of token honoris causa to sanity.

“So here’s the premise: After the presidential elections in America last Nov. 4, Philippine President Arroyo, along with every other world leader who isn’t a total dick, makes a phone call to Barack Obama to congratulate him on being elected the next President of the United States.

“And like every other person who had just been elected President of the United States at the time, he was a tad too busy to take phone calls at three in the morning, even if it was the leaders of every other country in the world at the other end of the line.

“Apparently in the thin-skinned bizzaro world of the Philippine opposition this amounts to a snub.

“Two days later Obama got around to the first batch of around 10 return calls to world leaders who congratulated him, and much to the delight of cynics the Philippines was not one of those lucky chosen few. This is apparently enough to conclude that ‘Snubs show Obama is no RP friend’ and plaster that statement as the headline of some front page analysis.

“Now it’s worth mentioning the sort of nonsense that (columnist) put into this particular linked article because it reflects the baloney that people on that side of the bridge trick themselves and the casual public into believing. He said the Philippines is not on Obama’s radar, he says it’s a speck on his map, he calls our leaders humiliated, and he conjures up a story about Obama’s staff not knowing where the Philippines is.

“He implies that Obama will never give a return call, calls the Philippines a sidelined leper, and then closes by saying, this is a quote, ‘Obama is not our friend.’ It’s unclear whether (columnist) is being maliciously crooked or merely an affable naive old man.

“But what the cynics don’t realize (or pretend not to notice) — and amazingly I have yet to see a single person point this out — was that the countries Obama returned calls to that week were basically the members of the G8 plus America’s southern neighbor Mexico and their best-friend-down-under Australia and their Middle-East-mistress Israel.

“Let’s be real. Those that demand or expect the Philippines should be included in that top tier of countries Obama makes return calls to are either extremely presumptuous or simply don’t have a clue.

“In fact, Arroyo did get a return call from Obama on Nov. 17, making her the first Southeast Asian leader to get such a call, a fact which would make a lot of Filipinos feel all fuzzy inside had only someone bothered to point it out aside from myself several weeks after the fact.

“The only other Southeast Asian leader Obama has called up is Indonesia’s president on Nov. 24. Does this make Malaysia and Singapore lepers too, or does Obama get the benefit of the doubt this time?

“Other people who Obama has returned calls to in the weeks after he called Arroyo are the leaders of Argentina, Chile, Ireland, Kazakhstan, Colombia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Haiti, Afghanistan, the Palestinian Authority, the European Commission, and United Nations. Just yesterday he made calls to the leaders of Denmark, Greece, Iraq, Qatar, Kuwait, and the Netherlands.

“Anyone who was spreading intrigue or prematurely declaring a new dark age of Philippine-American relations needs a good kick in the ass from the boot of perspective.

“Unfortunately it’s the cynics that have won this round, not by being correct (clearly) but by barking the loudest at a time when people gave a damn and couldn’t know any better. They’ve succeeded at their goal of undermining respect for the government and making people feel just a little bit worse about their country and the people in charge of it.

“So who, really, is no friend of the Philippines?”