Obama Stimulates the Economy for Ticket Scalpers

Not to a presidential rally, but the annual White House Easter Egg Roll:

Maybe we should go back to standing in line.

The White House's Internet distribution of tickets to this year's Easter Egg Roll appears to have begun with a splat.

Yesterday's release of tickets online in batches produced what some would-be roll-goers described as large gaps in availability, and frustration and confusion.

In recent years, most people wanting to get the free tickets for the hallowed Washington rite of spring would have to stand in line, often for hours, at the Ellipse Visitor Pavilion, at 15th and E streets, the Saturday before the roll. Tickets were distributed first-come, first-served. Before that, huge lines would form Easter Sunday and into the next morning as people waited for tickets on the day of the event.

The switch to online distribution was envisioned as a way to ease the process and make tickets to the April 13 event on the White House's South Lawn available to a broader cross section of people across the nation. By 6 p.m. yesterday, tickets had been snatched up by people in 41 states, a spokeswoman said. By 7:45, the Web site said all tickets were gone.

So, if you're from some far off state and you just picked up tickets to the Easter Egg Roll, what are you going to do with them? Scalp them, of course:

A reader emails to note that six tickets to the Easter Egg Roll went for $979.99 on eBay.

When Bush was president all we had to worry about for this event was The Gayster Bunny - the collection of lesbians, gays, transgendered, transspecies and transplanetary folks who wanted to flood the event with weirdos claiming to be normal families. At least they didn't have to pay $1,000 for their tickets.