Great post
It's worth remembering that "Groundhog Day" was all about an elitist learning something important about small town America.
Of course, in the movie the Hand of Karma had to pound it into Bill Murray's head with a twelve-pound sledge.
With modern cell phone/PDA tech, pretty much any public place automatically incorporates a bunch of people with tape recorders or even video cameras. Our political culture is just starting to wise up to this.