This week brought a slew of April Fools' jokes from our media brethren. Hulu remade its page to look like it was 1996 -- ancient history in Internet terms. Google introduced "Gmail motion," a tool that allows users to send emails by using their body. YouTube offered the top 5 viral videos of 1911. And we had a little fun of our own. There were also a number of stories that felt like April Fools' jokes but, unfortunately, were all too real. There was Donald Trump doubling down on Birther-ism, releasing his birth certificate and calling for the president to release his; pastor/kook Terry Jones finally burning a Quran and igniting violent protests in Afghanistan that led to the killing of a dozen people, including seven UN workers. And there was our nation's capital -- a town full of true April fools -- still obsessed with spending cuts in the midst of a recession.

After six grueling weeks of playing Government Shutdown Chicken, President Obama, Harry Reid, and John Boehner all blinked, then went to their respective corners to celebrate. Boehner, holding up $38.5 billion in spending cuts -- and a provision banning the use of government funds to pay for abortions in the nation's capital -- was cheered by the GOP caucus. Reid, having kept the Republican axe from falling on Planned Parenthood and environmental regulations, deemed the deal "historic." And Obama wrapped the agreement in the mantle of all-American cooperation: "Americans of different beliefs came together again." Meanwhile, non-Beltway-locked Americans looked on with incredulity at the irrelevance of a budget battle that won't create jobs, won't improve the economy, and will barely move the needle on delivering a balanced budget. Memo to the president: You show leadership by producing a good economy, not hailing a compromise that will actually hobble the economy.

Mitt Romney formed a presidential exploratory committee this week. So did Rick Santorum. The pair joined fellow Republicans Tim Pawlenty and former Louisiana Gov. Buddy Roemer, who have previously gone the exploratory committee route, and Newt Gingrich who, in early March, launched "Newt Explore 2012," a website that proclaims he is "excited about exploring" the idea of running for president. I guess that means that likely-but-not-yet-in candidates Mike Huckabee, Michele Bachmann, Haley Barbour, Jon Huntsman, Mitch Daniels, and Sarah Palin are exploring the idea of exploring the idea of an exploratory committee. Since when did all this political Lewis and Clarking become the norm of running for president? It's like announcing that you're forming a committee to see if you want to marry your girlfriend. Either you want to commit or you don't. Why would we want to support a candidate who needs to explore whether he or she wants to lead us?

Obama is now making strong promises he's already broken. He's like a political version of the Guy Pearce character in Memento -- he's figured out a way to break promises outside of the limitations of linear time.

Obama didn't win in 2008 by swerving to the middle. Instead of fighting for the ever-dwindling number of swing voters, Obama fought to win over the much larger number of voters who had turned their backs on the process.