From Swampland commenter Kevin Lyda on ObamaKanyeJackAssGate:
Also, I’d like to repeat an earlier question, why was Obama even asked about Kayne’s outburst? Does every black public figure have to apologize for the misbehavior of any black celebrity? Is this some heretofore unwritten job title?
Eventually folks might start to think that’s pretty racist. So either you folks will stop adding such job titles *or* you’ll add such job titles to non-black public figures. Suddenly Hillary Clinton will have to answer for Brittney Spears and Paris Hilton’s transgressions. Gordon Brown will have to apologize for Russell Brand and Hugh Grant. John Bohner will have to apologize for Nick Nolte and Sean Penn?
Maybe you guys can have a little tick off box in your notebooks for, “Do you support/condemn [newsmaker of your ethnic group] for doing [bad thing]?”
Of course it would just be easier if black public figures just began all speeches or interviews by condemning some other black people who did something dumb. That would save you the effort of asking…
Martin
Not just celebrity. Remember, it’s Obama’s fault some kid got beat up on a schoolbus.
General Winfield Stuck
The harried white man demands this kind of justice. It is long overdue and Obama being the first negro presnit must take up the mantle and set right this ancient wrong.
i mean there had to be some reason the African natives wound up on the slave boats bound for southern cotton fields. Maybe it was just bad manners.
slag
This is going to be hard for Obama, given that he’s mixed-race. Condemning both Kanye West and Sean Penn for every silly thing they do is going to be a job of work.
Although, technically, quite a lot of us are mixed-race. We just don’t really know it.
Punchy
Waste of 1s and 0s. Dead story by tomorrow.
Anyone else trying to figure out how to see Megan Fox’s body without having to actually watch Jennifer’s Body? Is there a feature on the nets somewhere that pulls all the extraneous crap out of a movie and just condenses the funny and/or nude scenes into like a 10 minute mashup?
DougJ
Condemning both Kanye West and Sean Penn for every silly thing they do is going to be a job of work.
Don’t forget Jon from Jon and Kate. He’s from Hawaii. That’s on Obama too.
BerkeleyMom
My first comment to my sister the other day was I wonder how long it will be before Obama has to apologize for Serena Williams and Kanye West. Good grief, is Obama responsible for denouncing every dumb thing every African-American person does? I guess the media thinks they should ask.
slag
By the way, I actually like Sean Penn somewhat, given his inclinations toward community service. But he does indeed do a lot of silly things.
slag
@DougJ: Don’t forget Jon from Jon and Kate.
Honestly, I still don’t really know who these people are. I tried to have someone explain them to me in 140 characters or less once, and either I didn’t understand the response or there wasn’t much to these people. All I got was that they had a bunch of kids.
ADM
Well, someone should apologize for Hugh Grant.
TheFountainHead
Who the fuck is going to apologize for the Bee Gees? I want to know!! Boob Dole???
On a related note, go download the new Muse album if you want to live, %@#$^s
Calouste
Can we have the Republican leadership do the same for anytime a Southerner says something stupid (not including themselves)?
JK
The fact that Obama was asked this question is another benchmark one can use to measure how low journalism has fallen. TMZ reports the Obama’s came before he was to do an interview with CNBC. The person who asked Obama about Kanye West should be suspended for 1 month.
Obama shouldn’t have dignified this stupid question with a response. He should have said I don’t have time to waste on every nonsense story that fascinates the MSM.
Ash
Wait, who actually cared about this? I thought everyone in the universe agreed that Kanye is a jackass?
Are these the morans that believe the president should never discuss anything but politics NEVER EVER?
Ash
That’s stupid, he was just chatting with them. Even MY 60-something dad was talking about it. He can talk about whatever the fuck he wants.
OriGuy
I’m a white guy from Indiana, do I have to condemn Mike Pence? No problem, I’ll be happy to.
Elie
Who the fuck is going to apologize for the Bee Gees? I want to know!! Boob Dole???
Y’all make me laugh…lots of wit here…
thanks
slag
@Ash: I believe the issue was that the question may have been racially motivated. Not that it was frivolous. However, I’m not sure I agree with the racial motivation angle, given the obvious casual nature of the discussion. That said, when white people want to make small talk with non-white people, it is sometimes kinda funny how hard they try to relate the conversation to the non-white person’s “community”. For instance, if you run into Sherman Alexie on the street, you may be curious to find out what he thought of GW’s apprehension of “sovereign nations”. But that may be because you rarely interact with Native Americans and want to capitalize on the novel opportunity. Same could be true for this interviewer. Which just speaks to how segregated our society is, in general.
ImJohnGalt
@Punchy:
It premiered here in Toronto at TIFF last Thursday. The nude scenes featuring Ms. Fox (photos of which you undoubtably saw all over the internets months ago) were cut at the request of Ms. Fox.
Brachiator
I understand part of this, but the Kanye thing was hot news. Had Obama been asked about Serena Williams and Kanye and any other recent bad behavior by blacks in the news, maybe I would make more of a deal about this aspect of it.
That said, this whole thing has quickly become part of the GOP Obama Constant Criticism Campaign(tm).
Some news headlines and the intro on a number of talk radio shows I listened to on the commute home kept harping on how Obama calling Kanye West a jackass was … pay attention now … “unpresidential.”
And yet a couple of programs I listened to went on to note rightwing commentators who believed that Obama’s describing the cop who arrested Professor Gates as having “acted stupidly” was proof that Obama hated white people.
So let’s review:
Obama defends a black man: deep racist hatred of white people.
Obama criticizes a black man: unpresidential behavior.
Bonus round: President Bush calls a reporter a “major league a-hole” and while he is criticized for it, no one suggests that this somehow marks Bush as being “unpresidential.”
http://www.snopes.com/politics/bush/bushcuss.asp
As an aside, I am just astounded that Obama coming to Gates’ defense is seen by the rightwing goon squad as evidence of black solidarity over “fairness” to “real Americans,” even though Obama noted in his remarks about the incident that Gates was a personal friend.
As Marvin Gaye once sang, it just makes you want to holler.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDckI2P_DPA&feature=fvw
wasabi gasp
This post sucks.
Brian J
Was Obama asked about Serena Williams outburst(s) at the U.S. Open? Maybe he was. I don’t know. Was he asked about Chris Brown allegedly beating up Rihanna? What about Michael Vick’s return to the NFL? Again, maybe he was, but I don’t know.
I don’t think there was necessarily any racial angle to Obama being asked. It’s more likely that he was asked because (a) everyone was talking about it and (b) he’s relatively young and hip.
General Winfield Stuck
@wasabi gasp:
You lie. And I pre-apologize.
slag
@wasabi gasp: Disappointed yours wasn’t chosen for Comment of the Day?
Zifnab
I’m just waiting for FOX News to rush to Kanye West’s defense.
Did Obama just throw rap music under the bus?!
Was this a slap to the face of America’s most beloved black man?!
Is it irresponsible to make an off-the-record remark regarding a pop media figure the centerpiece of political discussion for the rest of the week? It would be irresponsible NOT TO!
JK
Good Question from pafro in the comments section of the Time Magazine blog post
“So what I can’t figure out is in 2001, we were attacked by a terrorist who was mailing letters with Anthrax in them. ABC News reported that anonymous Bush Administration officials told them that they had linked the particular type of Anthrax processing to Saddam’s Iraq.
Of course this was all a lie. Even though the journalistic protocol is that if someone lies to you anonymously, you blow their cover, ABC News, to this day, has refused to finger the lying liar. Yet they will totally breach protocol and report something the president asked them not to disclose.
Why is non-disclosure granted to a Bush official trying to lie us into war, but not to a black president? This stinks.”
wasabi gasp
@General Winfield Stuck: I never lie most of the time.
IndyLib
@Brachiator:
The wingnut’s favorite game – heads we win, tails you lose.
wasabi gasp
@slag: The post could be subtitled: an observation of the flight patterns of unhinged moonbats.
JK
@Brachiator:
I wish Obama would use the wingnut reaction to his comments on the Gates arrest and Kanye’s behavior as a teachable moment.
Just because Obama is President, doesn’t mean he’s under some legal or moral obligation to answer every stupid question that comes his way.
It would be refreshing if the next time Obama is asked for his reaction to the scandal of the moment, he’d just reply with a simple “No Comment”.
slag
@wasabi gasp: Mixing your metaphors definitely puts you out of contention. You’ll just have to try harder next time.
theblackcommenter
@Brian J: Obama ain’t young.
Comrade Luke
I agree with the sentiment, but I’d also like to ask:
Why does Obama feel OK calling Kayne a jackass, but when he green czar (correctly) calls Republicans assholes he has to resign? He is on the fence wrt the public option, but when it comes to the financial community he gives a speech in which he basically says “Please be nice”. WTF?
He sure has an easier time calling out people from his own tribe* than he does the opposition.
* I’m referring to Democrats and people ostensibly “on his side”. Not talking about race.
freelancer
@JK:
The biggest way he could have returned the insult, bruise West’s Ego and remained above the fray would have been to ask “Who’s Kanye West?” and then do his famous campaign snark grin.
Comrade Luke
Uh, that bold sentence is supposed to just have an asterisk, referring to the term “tribe” directly above.
My kingdom for an edit button.
slag
@Comrade Luke: Although I strongly disagree with what happened with Van Jones, I don’t think he got the axe because of the asshole comment alone. It was a combination of silly things that the Admin didn’t think it was worth their effort to defend.
Brachiator
@JK:
But of course, part of the thing here is that Obama’s remarks were part of some idle chit-chat as he was getting set to talk about something more substantial. And the remarks were supposed to be off-the-record. That is, they were off the record as far as the person actually there to interview Obama was concerned. But another reporter did a Twitter thing about Obama calling Kanye West a “jackass,” and the media fog machine then got into faux outrage debating the inane question as to whether such an outburst was “unpresidential.”
So it’s really not about Obama needing to say “no comment.” It’s that some media jackals will use any opportunity to to use anything that Obama says as something to “prove” that he is unpresidential or illegitimate.
As an aside, having heard an audio clip of the remarks, Obama’s sympathy for Taylor Swift clearly comes through. He is, after all, a father of daughters.
So once you cut through the fog of the faux controversy, Obama comes across as warm, human, and genuine. And so in this case, the more his opponents try to play this up, the more they end up helping Obama with the non-wingnut majority.
rock
So, tell me this is bullshit if it is, but I get the feeling that some people in the press like to hear black people criticize other black people because it makes them feel justified in how they feel. They aren’t racist, you see, because Obama feels the same way.
And they aren’t necessarily racist, and Kanye West is a jackass, but it’s weird to ask the President about it and that’s my guess as to why it happens.
Johnny Gentle (famous crooner)
I really don’t see the big deal. It was THE big pop-culture story of the day. I mean, if Obama had been in office a couple years ago, they would’ve asked him what he thought about Britney Spears shaving her head. It was just a breezy attempt to chat up the leader of the free world on the Us Weekly celeb crap that people talk about around the water cooler.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
If Obama wants to opine about his personal entertainment opinions then let People magazine or the like do the questioning because that is where that crap belongs. When the ‘serious press’ asks a question like this it only highlights how out of touch, petty and tone deaf our MSM are. Our president has many more important things to worry about and I wish he had not humored them with an answer, wasting his time (and ours) on something only 13 year olds would care about.
JenJen
Slight quibble… personally, I think Russell Brand and Hugh Grant should be apologizing for Gordon Brown.
But yes, this is such an annoying media auto-reaction. I think Atrios has complained quite a bit about this before, as in, “Oh, did a black person say something controversial? Then we must get Obama’s remarks.”
Oh and Terry Moran? Does “off the record” mean anything to you, you asshat?
Mnemosyne
@JK:
I disagree. As other people have said, this seemed to be idle chatter before the interview proper started that wasn’t a big deal. Not, that is, until a reporter from another network saw it on the shared feed and tweeted about it.
The MSM is desperate to try and make this into “is Obama unpresidential” because otherwise people will start asking uncomfortable questions like, “Hey, why was an ABC reporter spying on an interview Obama was doing with her competitor?”
On the Serena Williams front, apparently a viewing of the tape showed that she was actually correct and the official she was yelling at had incorrectly called the foul:
It was still unsportsmanlike and she deserved to lose, but she was not incorrect that she was given the penalty based on the judge’s error.
Mnemosyne
@JenJen:
Hey, she wasn’t the one who promised it would be off the record — the reporter from a different network who was actually conducting the interview did. Basically, Moran eavesdropped on someone else’s conversation without their knowledge and then breathlessly ran to Twitter to tweet about her “scoop.”
I don’t think we need any further proof that the MSM is doing nothing but transmitting high-school style gossip. (“OMG! When I was in the library, I totes heard Barry talking to this other guy and he said Kanye was a jackass!”)
Brachiator
@Comrade Luke:
Because Kanye West was a jackass. Period. Pure and simple.
Awards shows may be dumb, but the acceptance speech is a performer’s moment to shine, to be able to thank fans and friends for whatever. For someone to step on that rituaal moment is crass, stupid, jackass behavior. It’s like tripping a bride as she walks up the aisle because you think she shouldn’t be the one hooking up with the groom. To choose a moment when all eyes are on the star in order to deliberately ruin the moment is astoundingly bad behavior.
And it is not unlike the ritual of an invitation to the president to speak before the Congress being violated by an asshat shouting “You lie.”
The Van Jones duast-up is a whole ‘nuther thing.
Mnemosyne
@Mnemosyne:
Oops, I just realized that Terry Moran is actually a guy. I apologize to teenage girls everywhere since they clearly have more common sense than Moran does.
JK
@Brachiator: @Mnemosyne:
The rules under which the MSM operate are being rewritten every other nanosecond thanks to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Myspace, etc. Terry Moran is a moron. I’d like to see him get suspended. Obama wasn’t at fault in terms of substance concerning Kanye West.
It looks like Obama can’t afford to have any unguarded moments outside of when he’s in the bathroom or in the WH bedroom with Michelle. I think this obsession by the MSM to report every single utterance of Obama, including off the record sessions is disgusting.
My concern is that the more media interviews Obama grants, the more opportunities he creates for gaffes. The MSM, especially 24 hour news is obsessed with gaffes and gotcha moments. I wish Obama would give more thought to his media availability sessions. I don’t want to see his presidency taken off message by the death of a thousand cuts.
sluggahjells
To be honest here, there was no signs of race card here, at all.
As one commentator said above, this is just a hot issue.
And John Hardwood is certainly not known for race bait intervals AT ALL. He is a fairly likable guy, though like all in the corporate media, is inconsistent with his journalism (though he has been the best so far at giving an interview to Obama).
Knee jerk reaction if there ever was, and this comes from a young black male saying this.
hamletta
I know what the commenter is talking about, but this question wasn’t like that at all.
Wonkette has the audio clip, and the question was, “Were your girls as upset as mine were about Kanye West….”
So the question wasn’t posed to him as a fellow dusky-hued person, but as a fellow father of young girls.
Of course, the subsequent coverage does have some of that subtext, but that’s not why the question came about in the first place.
hamletta
@JK: I don’t think it’s a gaffe at all. He just said what millions of people, black or white, were thinking.
It was the big pop culture drama of the day, and he showed that he keeps up with culture as much as everything else—he’s got tweenage girls who care about that shit, and he cares because they do; he’s a good dad.
He expressed sympathy for Taylor Swift, saying she seems like a nice girl, and West was a big meanie for taking away her moment.
Beyonce’s graciousness had already erased the racial aspect of it. By her actions, she had already called West a jackass.
Church Lady
Did everyone here have a problem when Lynn Sweet asked Obama about Henry Gates-gate at the first Health Care presser? If not, why is asking about Kanye any different? I give props to Obama on this one – Kanye IS a jackass. But that response shouldn’t have been off the record, any more than noting that the sun rises in the east should be off the record. Facts are facts, and the fact is Kanye West is a jackass.
JK
@sluggahjells: @hamletta:
I’m not convinced this incident was about race, although Kevin, the Swampland commenter, is absolutely right. Obama should not be expected to offer an opinion on every statement made by or any inappropriate act committed by an African American.
Beyond the race issue, the MSM looks so fucking pathetic with the Kanye question. Just because Obama is President, do the scumbags in the Washington Press Corps feel the public needs to know his opinion on the acceptance speeches delivered at the Emmy Awards, the progress Tom Brady is making since his return to the Patriots, the Joba rules the NY Yankees have formulated, etc ?
Brachiator
@JK:
Yep. And the new iPod nano comes with a video camera. The rules under which we all operate are being re-written.
A suspension would be overkill, especially since there was nothing particularly controversial about Obama’s remarks. Aside from the GOP smear machine trying to get mileage out of it, Obama’s remarks probably will boost his popularity.
By the way, various media organizations are having to come up with policy on Twitter and similar stuff. For example, the NFL is banning Twitter transmissions by players at games, in part because the networks want to control how a game is presented and commented on, and don’t want athletes or coaches or other official people present creating their own behind-the-scene scoops. It’s a business, after all.
News organizations are going to have to deal with this as well.
I think that Obama will adjust better and more quickly than others.
hamletta — So the question wasn’t posed to him as a fellow dusky-hued person, but as a fellow father of young girls.
Yep. This is why the leak of Obama’s comments will help him. Despite all the huffing and puffing of the opposition, Obama’s candid remarks helps him with all the regular folk who felt sympathy for Taylor Swift.
JK
@hamletta:
I call this a small gaffe by Obama for bothering to answer a meaningless, irrelevant, and unimportant question.
I call this a tremendous gaffe by the MSM.
Yes, the incident was supposed to be off the record. Yes, it was probably intended as an icebreaker.
The MSM needs to grow the fuck up. I don’t care what Obama thinks of Kanye West or Taylor Swift. I don’t care who his World Series or Super Bowl picks are. I don’t care what his Emmy or Oscar picks are. The MSM needs to do its fucking job and stop mixing pop culture bullshit with the business of governance.
freelancer
If the seasonal flu shot makes me feel this shitty, I can’t wait til my hospital gets the H1N1 shot. OTOH, it’s my first flu shot in 10 years so I’m sure my immune system is going apeshit unneccessarily.
Brachiator
@freelancer:
Wait a minute. Isn’t this what Kanye West said at first in an attempt to explain his rudeness?
More seriously, hope you feel better, and I also hope that feeling crappy won’t be a common reaction. My office is scheduled to get the seasonal flu shot next month.
JK
@Church Lady:
I thought Lynn Sweet’s question was incredibly offensive. She never would have asked Hillary Clinton or John McCain for their reactions about Henry Louis Gates being arrested.
Sweet was doing exactly what Kevin Lyda, the Swampland commenter was talking about.
Lynn Sweet is an asshole and an embarrassment and disgrace to journalism.
freelancer
@Brachiator:
As a fellow skeptic, I hope you know that I’m as anti-anti-vacc as one can get. I’ll take a 48 hour cold over a bout of the flu any year. However I haven’t had a flu shot in 10 years. Advice I got from co-workers is this: On the day you arrange to get your shot, take some aleve or advil before your shot as well as some sudafed. Basically take everything you would take the night you feel that you’re starting to catch a cold, and you’ll be fine.
Kevin Lyda
Thanks for the “Comment of the Day” honor. Obviously most of the credit goes to Swampland for it’s ability to inspire extreme snark.
Remember, if you live overseas or you know an overseas voter, you can vote. There’s an election coming up in MA for instance. Make sure you’re registered, http://www.votefromabroad.org/
@JK in #25 – I think that’s a fantastic question. Of course it depends on what ABC News is. If it’s a group of tough as nails journalists, then it’s a good question. If it’s a group of gossipy stenographers then you’re asking a completely unfair question.
Ash
No, seriously, why are there like 50 comments dissecting this? Every normal person out in the world thinks it’s hilarious, the end.
JK
@Kevin Lyda:
Thanks for posing a very important question. I wish you had an opportunity to ask a journalist this question and receive a response.
I hope someone asks your question during a Washington Post online chat session.
#25 – That was a fantastic question someone else asked on Swampland. I posted it here to see what BJ readers thought.
Martin
Ah, but Obama wants you to know who his World Series picks are.
Obama got a fuckton of mileage out of being able to talk NCAA brackets and other things. His bowling skills aside, Obama connects with voters at a very common level – which really did help him against Hillary, and which she struggled to pull off as naturally. It benefits Obama to get some of that pop culture bullshit out there because, truth be told, pop culture bullshit matters more to voters than politics does.
Whether the MSM wants to deliver that message or not, to a degree Obama wants them to, and will continue to want them to.
Kevin Lyda
@Martin: Sure, talking about pop culture does benefit Obama. But why not ask him about John and Kate? Since he’s currently talking a lot about health care, why not ask him about Patrick Swayze or Farrah Faucet or even Michael Jackson? The excuse for the question was that he has daughters – there have been several high profile cases about murdered and/or kidnapped young women, why not ask about them?
But for some mysterious reason he gets asked about Kayne West, a black Harvard professor whose name escapes me and Harry Belefonte. But there’s zero chance race played a factor in those conversational topics.
Right.
Sorry, I lived in America for the first 28 years of my life and saw enough racism to know it’s there – and I’m white so therefore am not exposed to it nearly as much as non-whites are. I’ve seen people fired, blocked from renting and overly-questioned by the police due to race. I’ve heard racist comments that were so “out there” that I honestly questioned what century I was in. Did you know there’s a creationism compromise position? Whites were created; blacks evolved.
Racism permeates America. Living outside it for a while makes that crystal clear. Not that other countries are racism-free, it’s just different in them so their racism is also clear to someone used to American racism. Unless people start to be honest about that it’s not going to change.
Martin
I’m going to give the reporter the benefit of the doubt, now that the audio is out there, that this was a genuinely off-the-record question. It wasn’t presented as on the record (hacked off?) so I don’t see why there’s a controversy here beyond why this didn’t stay off the record. The Gates question was on the record and out of topic, so I think that’s fair to poke at.
And you don’t need to convince me of the problem of racism in this country, but I think it’s a long reach in this specific instance. It just gets to be too easy for everyone to overlook questions asked of Obama about whites and then get ramped up over a question about blacks.
If the chit-chat before the Kayne West question was about Tom Brady or Federer would this still be a controversy?
OriGuy
So before the interviewer actually started, Harwood asked Obama a light, off-the-record question, kind of as an icebreaker. I doubt this was the only thing they were talking about. However, it’s the only thing Moran saw fit to twitter. Aside from the fact he had no business doing that at all, that is the salient point. Maybe they talked about Beyonce’s dress, for all we know. Although if Obama said anything complementary about any woman’s appearance, that would have gotten twittered, too.
JK
@Kevin Lyda: @Martin:
I don’t think it does Obama or the office of the presidency any good to be peppered with questions on a regular basis about pop culture. It’s sideshow nonsense designed to distract the public from issues that matter.
Several months ago, in a Politico article, John Harwood and several of his collegaues confessed that they didn’t like reporting the healthcare story because it was too difficult for them to explain.
Bill E Pilgrim
I think there’s a simple solution: If top Republican political leaders can just be held responsible for every dumb-ass white person Glenn Beck-listening marcher holding up openly racist signs, then it will at least be even.
“So senator, here’s a photo of a white person doing something utterly despicable the other day, as a white person, do you condemn or approve?”
Of course, if you’re asking someone like Dick Armey, he IS responsible and not even figuratively but directly, so there’s that.
kommrade reproductive vigor
Dan “I see black people” Riehl is claiming Obama threw West under the bus.
It extends beyond public figures and celebrities. If any black person any where acts up, we’re all supposed to apologize to every non-black person, thereby confirming our responsibility for the original act.
WereBear
@hamletta:
And where is Beyonce’s grace and good feeling in all of this?
That’s at least as good a story… yet it’s forgotten for the most part.
Her behavior was a model for how to act; we could at least get that out there.
asiangrrlMN
I will be goddamn if I have to apologize for Michelle Malkin. Not. Gonna. Do. It.
Kanye West is a jackass. So is Joe Wilson. So is approximately seventy-five percent of our country. What of it? I’ve been watching the ‘death of civility’ meme circulating amongst the big TV muckety-mucks, and all I gotta say is, “Who are you showing on the TV? All the people you say are ruining civility.”
Jackasses, all of them.
jon
Hey, reporters! If you ever need a pop culture quote on Finns or Lithuanians, I’ll be your go-to source. And it can all be on the record, too.
Here’s some samples:
“Mari Boine looked like she wanted to jump Willie Nelson during that star-studded chorus of Imagine.”
“BIX may have been big in France, but they’re no Serge Gainsbourg.”
and
“Sleepy Sleepers are too drunk to reunite.”
Thank you, MSM. Sincerely, your Baltic Source
kay
Media have to stop making their jobs all about them. They just have to resist the celebrity urge.
Part of the reason they don’t have any credibility is this stuff is so clearly about advancing individual careers, and name recognition.
This reporter then added an editorial comment: “now THAT’S presidential!” That’s where the “presidential” whining came from. The reporter supplied it. They’re quoted as often as the people they cover. That’s a huge problem.
I don’t care all that much, but I would think members of that profession would care. Apparently, they don’t.
Bill E Pilgrim
@kay: Obama has more “Presidential” in his little finger than George W Bush displayed in the entire nightmarish eight years put together.
Giving backrubs to Prime Ministers, “we gonna smoke em outta their hole”, not being able to string two words together without causing a linguistic train wreck that your average seven year old would shake her head at upon hearing– Presidential, meh.
They just make it up. As usual.
Demo Woman
@WereBear: Beyonce is a class act and that doesn’t fit into the narrative now going on.
satby
Well, it was the topic of the day and everybody thinks West was a jackass, so on that level it’s kind of a non-issue. But I doubt anyone would have asked the previous occupant of the office that question.
And while we’re on the subject, could the MSM please quit having mostly black journalists as the “liberal” countervoice defending Obama on roundtables and panels? No diss meant to Roland Martin or Gene Robinson, but c’mon. In a sea of white folks on Hardball or whatever, the lone liberal has to be another black guy? Takes racism to a whole ‘nother level. Because none of Obama’s policy initiatives will help white folks? Seriously?
SenyorDave
OT, but I went to Malkin’s site to see if she had updated her shrill claims about “racist black thugs” in the Belleville scholl bus beating, since it now appears to have been over seat choice. This was the first time I had ever been at her site intentionally, and I had never read any comments. She must be so proud! Many of the comments are overtly racist.
What a sorry excuse for human she is.
I do remember seeing her many years ago as part of the panel on a great show PBS used to have that would discuss a single issue. She was very young, probably just out of college, and she was making the point that the Hispanic immigrants did not learn English quickly, unlike the Ellis Island immigrants. She made the unfortunate mistake of saying this in front of an historian who happened to be one of the leading expert on immigrants from the Ellis Island period. He rather gently ripped her a new one, but let her know that she was completely ignorant on the entire subject (not that it mattered to her, I’m guessing she was still convinced she was right).
kay
@Bill E Pilgrim:
I don’t think it was intended like that. I think it was intended in a smarmy pop culture “we all hate Kanye West!” way.
In a “I was standing next to the President and he said THIS…!” way.
They’re 7th graders.
As for conservatives, getting all huffy (again) because Obama was caught chatting with the 7th graders in the press corps, I like them best when they’re mortally offended on Presidential norms and manners.
The Peggy Noonan syndrome is my personal favorite aspect of the “conservative soul”. It’s harmless.
Bill E Pilgrim
@kay: Not sure I follow– you don’t think her writing “Now THAT’S Presidential!” was a criticism of him for not being “Presidential”?
I do.
kay
@SenyorDave:
I can’t believe she’s been writing for two days about a fight over a seat on a school bus.
I just think that is freaking amazing, all by itself.
WHY are they focusing on this? Because of the blatantly racist signs at the tea parties? Doesn’t writing about this just reinforce the notion that the tea parties are about race? She’s drawing a comparison, right? Between two racially motivated attacks?
I didn’t say it, SHE did, in so many words.
Ash Can
Maybe the President of Ireland should be asked to apologize for Terry Moran’s behavior.
Now, something delightfully OT. If you click on this link it will take you to a GOS story that has no text (other than a couple of sentences of introduction), just a series of photographs. It made my morning, and it’s guaranteed to make you feel good.
kay
@Bill E Pilgrim:
No. I don’t. I think it was meant to show approval. She (and we! ) agree with the President on that mean ‘ol Kanye West!
Like that.
I think the whole thing is about the reporter. We’re talking about her.
Lynne Sweet said after her stupid Gates question that she would have asked any other President about the Gates incident. She volunteered that information. Why did she feel she should do that?
Woody
It’s a well-known fact that all black people know one another.
And anyone speaking Spanish around a Gringo is talking ABOUT the Gringo, and not saying nice things, either.
I thought everyone knew this…
kay
@kommrade reproductive vigor:
Obama also “knows” personally, every black person he hires. That’s why he hires them. They’re all his friends, because every black person knows every other black person.
When he nominated Eric Holder, I was interested in that, so I followed it and read comments on various news sites. There was this shared assumption that Obama and Eric Holder had been socializing for decades, and that it was essentially a crony pick.
There’s no reason to believe that, other than that they’re both black men, and, I guess, lawyers.
jwb
Since pretty much everybody agrees with the sentiments of Obama’s comment, I actually don’t see how this particular instance is at all detrimental to Obama, whatever the wingnuts might say about his language. Especially coming on the heels of their defense of Joe Wilson’s comment, I think most people just think it’s the usual wingnut. I’m with Punchy. It will die quickly.
Michael D.
I read the transcript, and Obama wasn’t asked for his thoughts on Kanye West. He was asked if his daughters were as hacked off about it as the interviewer’s were.
Sounded like pre-interview banter to me.
Surly Duff
I have to agree that the use of the word “jackass” really isn’t very presidential. Now if he had called Kanye a “turdblossom”? That, my friends, is presidential.
parksideq
Shorter Barack Obama: “Today, we are all Taylor Swifts.”
This is faux-troversy at its finest; Obama basically reiterated what South Park observed months ago (Google “Kanye West fishsticks” for context). If anything, this is Obama’s first success at coming to a bipartisan conclusion. Nothing to see here; keep walking. Also.
JK
@kay:
Lynne Sweet is a goddamn liar. She wouldn’t have asked Hillary Clinton or John McCain about Henry Louis Gates’ arrest in a million years. Sweet is so full of shit, it’s not even funny.
Rick Massimo
@Brian J: Yeah, I agree that he was probably asked about it because a) he is the only government official in Washington who has actually lived in something resembling the planet the rest of us inhabit, and b) has daughters who probably listen to Kanye West, and so is probably at least somewhat familiar.
What I keep thinking is, thank God Kanye West is black. Because President Black Guy calling an honest, hard-working white guy* a jackass would have produced a ragegasm detectable on the Richter scale.
* Apologies for the redundancy; I know all white guys are honest and hard-working.
Adrienne
Far be it from me to actually (gasp!) defend the MSM, but…. some of you guys are jumping down their backs about “how far journalism has sunk” blah blah “that this passes for journalism blah blah.”
This wasn’t presented as an actual, serious, journalistic question. It was chit chat, and an attempt by the interviewer to “bond” with the interviewee before the interview begins over the subject of their children. The interview hadn’t begun yet, and the interviewer asked Obama something like, “Hey, were your daughters as worked up as mine were about what Kanye did to Taylor at the VMA’s?” That was the gist of the question. It wasn’t meant to be serious, it wasn’t even a part of the damn interview.
So, while I am all for jumping up and down on what passes for journalism when warranted, this time it isn’t so get your freaking panties out of your ass and chill the fuck out. Kthxbai!
Hypatia
@Mnemosyne: referred to Terry Moran as she.
Why do you think this reporter is female?
I believe that HE is the brother of RightWing Nuthouse’s Rick Moran.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Moran
Dream On
Shades of Katrina.
“Kanye West does not care about award-winners.”
Sincerely, Kanye West
Mnemosyne
@Hypatia:
That would be why I corrected myself at #44.
Mnemosyne
@Ash Can:
Dang, Malia is tall! She must be well over 5’6″ at this point.
itsbenj
@Hypatia: exactly. I love how mad people are over something they didn’t even read or listen to. jeez folks, if you’re going to criticize media superficiality at least know what you’re complaining about!