Forget about Asian bail-outs, Bosnia, floods and famines. It's been the week of The Dog. This is not a shaggy dog story.
From the moment President Clinton announced that there was to be a First Dog in the White House, Americans went crazy, and the media were worst of all. The President milked it for all it was worth by refusing to reveal the name of the chocolate-coloured Labrador puppy until his end-of-year press conference.
As Marlin Fitzwater, press secretary to Presidents Reagan and Bush, said admiringly: "We haven't seen this kind of stage management since Lassie Come Home." Washington Post columnist Mary McGrory, who is no admirer of Clinton, headed her column: "Hail to the Canine in Chief".
TV shows which avoid boring White House politics like the plague fawned over the puppy. Morning and evening news programmes ran endless clips of the President cuddling his new friend. Thousands of people phoned and e-mailed their suggestions for a name.
Man of the moment was Ray Rowan, author of a book called First Dog: American Presidents and their Best Friends. He has discovered that all but five presidents had dogs. George Washington had 36.
The first presidential dog to be photographed was Abraham Lincoln's Fido. You won't believe this, but Fido was also assassinated - stabbed to death by a drunk, Rowan says.
The revered Thomas Jefferson had his dog hanged after he killed a sheep on his farm. President Warren Harding's dog, Laddie Boy, got a statue in Washington, which is more than his master did. But then the dog had a handcarved seat at the cabinet table and newspapers used to run spoof interviews with him. When the Bushes were in the White House, cocker spaniel Millie became famous. Barbara wrote a 1990 bestseller about her called Millie's Book. Millie was the last dog in the White House until the newcomer.
Then, of course, there was Checkers, who saved Richard Nixon when he was being accused of accepting illegal gifts as vice-president. "The kids love the dog and we're going to keep it," he said on television, holding up the cocker spaniel, and America forgave him.
So, dogs make history here. Mr Clinton had a dog when he was governor of Arkansas, a cocker spaniel called Zeke, later run over by a car.
A friend of the Clintons, Diane Blair, has been urging them to get a dog following the departure of their only daughter, Chelsea, to university in California. "A President receives constant criticism from all quarters, from the press, Congress, the world. A dog never criticises," she pointed out.
So two weeks ago, another friend, dog-breeder Tony Harrington, brought the three-month-old puppy to the White House. The first that staff knew about it was when the President showed up late for a meeting looking sheepish after he had been walking with the dog.
Press Secretary Mike McCurry told the cynical White House press corps that "it's the President's desire to have one loyal friend in Washington". He added few details beyond: "I think he had a close encounter with the puppy and enjoyed the puppy. And bonding occurred."
It was also suggested that walking the puppy would be one of the duties of the press pool, the group which follows presidents almost everywhere on what is called the "Death Watch".
Senior White House aides, when asked to reveal the name of the puppy, would turn on their speaker phones and bark, but "on condition of anonymity".
The staid New York Times ran an op-ed piece headed "And They Call It Puppy Love".
Then there was the Socks problem. Socks is the White House cat. What would Socks think of the newcomer?
Hillary Clinton took questions on this one. She revealed that the President "introduced" the pup to the cat and "The puppy was very happy to meet Socks and Socks would just as soon wait a while. But we have every reason to believe that there will be a peaceful reconciliation during the holiday season."
Well, thank goodness for that. But Dr Bonnie Beaver, a veterinary behaviourist at Texas A&M University warned that "the biggest problem you worry about is that the dog can bother the cat around the litter-box area". She explains: "The cat gets all postured and ready to eliminate and along comes this pest. So a lot of them stop using the litter box."
That could certainly be a problem in the White House, where VIPs might have to step over the stuff or avoid sitting in it.
At last the day dawned when Washington - nay, the whole world - would find out the name of the puppy at the presidential end-of-year press conference. First there had to be NATO expansion, global warming, economic chaos in Asia, Bosnia, health insurance, crime, welfare . . . The media quivered in expectation.
One TV station had interrupted its programme a few hours before to say it would be Luke. Wrong.
"I finally decided to name the dog after my beloved uncle who died earlier this year. I'm going to call the dog Buddy because of the importance of my uncle to my life," the President announced.
At last the nation could get back to normal.
Failed presidential candidate Bob Dole made the best joke, also getting in a dig at the fundraising scandals: "I don't want him messing up the Lincoln Bedroom, even if he contributes." Last word to Hillary. "I wish everyone could see my husband's eyes light up when his Buddy bounds down the hall to greet him."
Aw, shucks. Merry Christmas.