Speaking of echo chambers, for some reason, Obama’s opening day pitch is headlining the local conservative blog:
This was posted without explanation, so I’ll leave it to you guys to figure out what’s un-American about it.
Reader Interactions
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Cain
Cuz he’s wearing a bright red jacket. Clearly, a commie.
cain
Joel
He’s throwing out the pitch for the Expos?
El Cid
Obama could never be the nominee because he bowled so badly.
Leelee for Obama
Because Obama’s doing whatever is being done. By definition, that’s un-American.
So old, this is-I’m trying to pay no attention whatsoever.
russell
Wide to the left.
Cain
It was a lousy pitch, but man the announcers loved him. The laugh he had when he put on the sox cap made the whole thing very charming.
cain
Peter J
Nationals is obviously short for Nationalisation, and his pitch was high and left. Add that to Cain’s observation of the color, and you got three facts. Three facts that prove, beyond doubt, that Obama is a soc*al*st commie hell bent on taking over America.
kommrade reproductive vigor
An Islamo-Kenyan impersonating the PotUS!
J.W. Hamner
I love everything about this Weekly Standard post (via Jonathan Chait):
Obama’s Basketball Skills: Are they better than his baseball skills?
ajr22
Who cares, but his support for the Whitesox takes my o-botism to the next level.
Peter J
Nationals is obviously short for Nationalisation, and his pitch was high and left. Add that to Cain’s observation of the color, and you got three facts. Three facts that prove, beyond doubt, that Obama is a soci*l*st commie hell bent on taking over America.
Sue
Mixing a National League jacket with an American League cap, goin’ all bipartisan on everyone. WAY too hopey-changey if you ask me.
mistermix
@Cain: Yeah, I thought it was almost obligatory that the opening day pitch be a shitty throw, and the announcers were very positive, so I must be missing some secret coded message.
Original Lee
Obama is not a Real American, therefore he can’t pitch.
Dubya is a Real American and actually played on a baseball team in college, so when he throws a pitch, he does it right.
Need I say more?
OriGuy
SOX actually stands for Soci-alist Overlord X! OMG!
Peter J
I’m looking forward to the next NBA draft, where the players will be judged on their skills to lead the country.
Obama shouldn’t have been the first black president, he obviously stole that accomplishment from Michael Jordan.
Gravenstone
Let’s see how the mouth breathers would fare throwing a pitch while wearing body armor (hence the bulky Nats jacket). Plus, he was on the damned rubber – your average ceremonial pitcher stands at the bottom of the damned mound. Five or six more of those, and he’ll be burning ’em right down the middle of the plate, knee high!
The Main Gauche of Mild Reason
They’re making fun of the pitch, and possibly his “weasely” nature trying to identify with two teams at once.
Michelle
maybe the booing? there’s some booing going on when he is announced. it’s drowned out by the volume of the applause, but if you’re a wingnut, one boo = 1,000 boos (see also: tea party math)
Comrade Mary
Yeah, there was one guy who persisted in howling like a butthurt coyote through the whole thing. We got it, dude. Seriously.
Gus
As a Twins fan, I’m appalled by his Sox fandom.
Legalize
As we all know, Major League pitches never uncork bad pitches. Therefore, something something. Kenya. Birf Certificate. Pelosi. Death Panels.
Comrade Jake
I loved Obama’s comment that he was trying to intentionally walk the guy.
General Egali Tarian Stuck
A decent POTUS so far. Bob Gibson he ain’t/
Zifnab
And 10k cheers equals liberal Obama ACORN deception.
monkey.dave
He clearly stepped on the baseline when walking to the mound, which shows that he has no understanding of America’s pasttime.
SpotWeld
It was a bad pitch.
Worth a few yucks, the late night guys will probably come up with some good ones.
But yeah, this is a good example of political polarization extending something that isn’t worth more than a the usual 15 minutes.
Citizen_X
Open thread, so Imma say fuck whatever y’all are talking about. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MERLE!
ETA: That’s a link. Click on it, you’ll be happy.
C Nelson Reilly
Obama always throws a changeup
LuciaMia
Was he wearing the right jeans this time?
Jeez.
How’s that whiney-moaney thing working for ya?
stevie314159
He’s a lefty, dammit!
FlipYrWhig
Nope. George H.W. Bush was the ballplayer. Gee Dubs had to “buy” a team with other people’s money.
IndieTarheel
I wonder why these jackasses don’t bag on him about his basketball skills.
__
Oh, wait…
stevie314159
Reminds me of a George Carlin routine…
Baseball is a fairy game, the object is to be “safe at home”.
Football is a man’s game..gotta throw the long bomb and score.
Scott
These comments are endlessly awesome. Thank you all.
Eric
I presume it also has to go with the right wing meme that Obama can’t be a real White Sox fan because he couldn’t name any of their players that he followed growing up, or something.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX0PSoCTFas
ChrisS
The Sox play on the southside of Chicago, a historically black neighborhood. If Obama was a real American Gliberterian Man, he’d be a Cubs fan.
El Cid
Hugo Chavez also wears a red jacket and enjoys baseball. What more need be said?
UPDATE: Here is a YouTube vid of Hugo Chavez pitching. It’s exactly like Obama’s speech to Congress on health care reform. YOU LIE!
Scott
How’s that whiney-moaney thing working for ya?
When I first read this, I thought it said, “How’s that whitey-moaney thing working for ya?” And that’s fairly awesome.
Llelldorin
As far as I can tell, the right has internalized The Onion’s take on Obama, and so is using the only attack they can get any traction with right now:
“NERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRD!”
GambitRF
“It’s a dirty shame kids in Kenya were not taught how to throw a baseball like a man” -G. Gordon Liddy
http://mediamatters.org/blog/201004060018
Bnut
Direct quote from Guliani concerning the President’s dreams of a nuclear free world:
“Leverage means the other guy has to be afraid of you,” says Giuliani, a former associate attorney general. “I worked for a president, Ronald Reagan, who understood that brilliantly, and that’s how he won the Cold War. You need to appear to be unpredictable. [Reagan’s] State Department understood that you need to create pressure, to create something they’re afraid of. Tell me where Obama has done that.”
So make them afraid and act unpredictable. Jesus christ.
Martin
Well, I cringed when I watched the pitch. My daughter was better at hitting a target when she was 8.
It goes to the ‘authenticity’ bullshit from the other day. We assume that every kid who grew up in America at least got enough backyard catch time to reasonably get one over the plate. To them, I suspect it’s just more evidence that Obama is foreign. Of course, Obama didn’t have that kind of childhood, so it’s somewhat understandable.
That said, I cringe because the guy is clearly good at basketball. He’s by no means unathletic or uncoordinated and I’d argue that he’s probably the most athletic president we’ve had in a very long time. Given that, how can he not, with an hour or two of practice not get a decent throw out there? I’m sure *any* MLB pitcher would be happy to swing by the White House for a beer and a few tips.
Lyle4
Only white people care about baseball anyway.
I’d like to see one of those fat blowhards take Obama on the baksetball court and watch them cry then keel over with a heart attack.
Sentient Puddle
I should be surprised, but I’m not. They got the vapors about him throwing out the first pitch in a game last year as well, trying to determine whether or not the ball bounced and thus, whether or not it was a crappy pitch. It was pretty stupid.
It was also made even more stupid when someone compiled a bunch of clips of several others throwing out first pitches, and how much worse they were. My favorite was Mariah Carey throwing one at a Japanese game. It was like she was aiming for the ground ten feet in front of her.
dmsilev
He lives on the South Side of Chicago. I guarantee you that if he had shown up wearing a Twins hat (or worse, Cubs gear), there would be mobs picketing his house within the hour.
-dms
dmsilev
Chavez, Hell. *Fidel Castro* used to be a baseball player. Clearly, Obama is just about ready to allow the Russkies to base short-range nuclear missiles in Cuba.
-dms
GregB
Bush getting booed=Foul mouthed, sore sport anti-American leftists showing disrespect for the institution of the presidency.
Obama getting booed=Patriotic heartlanders expressing their red-blooded American disgust at the disrespect shown the presidency by President Hussein Muslim Chavez.
Admiral_Komack
“This was posted without explanation, so I’ll leave it to you guys to figure out what’s un-American about it.”
-He’s the BLACK President of the United States of America.
That’s un-American enough for some.
Bob L
El Cid @
So did Hitler. Just saying.
mcsey
He can’t throw a baseball, so he’s obviously not ‘merican. Damn people, it’s not that hard to figure out. Any decent red blooded American male in couch potato shape ought to be able to throw a decent fastball. Obama can’t; therefore, where’s the birth certificate?
norly that’s their point.
bemused
On Morning Joe, Scarborough brought Obama’s pitch up as often as he could. IOW, Joe was being his usual mature self, hard to differentiate from a 7th grade boy.
Dreggas
I was reading that people were having a fit because he put on the White sox cap when pitching for the “home team” nationals. Somehow it was disrespectful to the Nationals and somehow Obama has politicized sports.
CT
He’ll do a lot better when the NBA Finals roll around and he’s called upon to open Game 1 with the traditional double-somersault-off-the-trampoline dunk. Boomshakalaka!
Undercover FBI Agent DougJ
Only white people care about baseball anyway.
Ever spent time in an area where there are Dominican people? If you do, you will realize that white people don’t really care about baseball.
Lyle4
I’m amused by the people who think mistermix really had no idea what the point was.
flukebucket
Comrade Mary @ #19
I guarantee you that same son of a bitch in on social security / disability. He has a social security check in one pocket and a medicare card in his wallet but proudly wears his “Don’t Tread On Me” tshirt.
He will vote Republican in the next election just so we can turn this ship around and get back to the limited government and fiscal responsibility we had from 2000-2008.
And Jesus. Also. Too.
Mnemosyne
I’m just relieved he didn’t bounce it again.
Then again, G and I have a mixed marriage: he’s a Sox fan and I’m a Cubs fan.
Elie
Martin:
Given an hour or two, I hope that he would take time out to relax and do what he wants to do. Who cares whether he is a pitching star? If he got it across the plate perfectly, the assholes would complain that he spent too much time practicing and should have been doing something else. As I said, who cares about this?
Zach
I buy the wingnut criticism here. Whatever his faults, George Bush’s post-9/11 first pitch at Yankees stadium was the greatest moment of his presidency. And it was a fantastic pitch… easily the most skillful I’ve seen.
And, this clearly reveals the origins of Obama’s liberal shame. The pitch was wide left. This hints at one of the conspiracies that has yet to be uncovered about Obama that us liberals have been keeping a lid on… it involves Obama’s employment in upstate New York with a certain sports team circa 1991. A tragic event that led to Obama’s ideological reorientation.
GregB
G. Gordon Liddy claims that President Obama throws like a girl.
The same G. Gordon Liddy seen here modeling the latest in manly bathing attire.
*Eye bleach recommended.
-G
Liz
He throws like a girl? Everyone knows only commie pinkos like girls.
SiubhanDuinne
@C Nelson Reilly #28:
Enhanc’d.
Llelldorin
Somehow I think a politician who is the current living master of the “pretend you’re playing eleven-dimensional chess and watch your opponents implode trying to punch air and smoke” school of politics knows perfectly well how to unnerve his opponents.
aimai
I could give a flying fuck about our national pastime, but if the smile Obama gave while putting on that White Sox cap wasn’t pure delight, sunshine, kitties, and unicorns I don’t know what is. That guy is adorable.
aimai
Geeno
Meh. I’m a white boy born in the US, and I can’t throw a baseball for shit either. In my youth, I could throw a football fairly well, but those days are long past. What I throw now looks like those ducks Billy Kilmer was tossing up for the Redskins in the early seventies.
Bob L
GregB @
It wasn’t until the Bush admin before i could understand why the Right liked such and utter tool and fuck up like Liddy.
RichJ
I’m confused by the extent of the boos, honestly. The District and NoVA (the intended market of the Nats) are fairly Democratic, so who was there to boo the President?
Cedwyn
oh ye gods…now FDL is asking supporters if they should get involved in the fight for MJ legalization. please lord no.
zzyzx
So it’s been what, 2 weeks, since HCR passed and we’ve already moved on to this? Wow, it’s amazing how quickly we got over the move to soci al ism…
Jay C
Heh – Obama could have burned his “ceremonial” pitch at 95 mph right down the middle like Nolan Ryan or Sandy Koufax, and the wingers would still find something – anything – to bitch about solely because it’s Barack Obama doing it.
And the really sad part is the percentage of the audience out there who is going to take said BS critiques seriously. The brain-rotting effects of ODS on display: sad.
Martin
Well, all I can do is speak for myself here. If I were in Obama’s shoes and asked to throw out the first free-throw of the NBA championships (I can throw a curve ball strike about 90% of the time, and in my day get fastballs in the 90MPH range, but I suck at basketball) I’d not worry about being able to make the shot, but I’d put some time in to demonstrate that it’s important. Not for show, but when I run up against something that I know I’m bad at, I’m determined to get better at it, and knowing that I’m going to be in the position of getting up and doing this thing, I’d get better at it, just for my own personal development. No, I wouldn’t expect to even be good at it, just better in some proportion to the importance of the act (not terribly important, I’ll admit).
If it was one of my kids, I’d probably challenge them of being lazy. It may not be important to be able to spell ‘potato’ or know who the leader of Argentina is, but if you know the question is coming and you don’t bother to study it, I’m going to call you lazy.
It’s a trivial criticism of someone like Obama considering all of the things that he’s done, but to my eye it makes him look just a little bit lazy, and that just drives me a little crazy.
Joel
There are a lot of Phillies fans in attendance. Booing is their only form of communication.
anatta
He threw like a girl, therefore he must be gay. QED.
/4th-grade logic’d
Mnemosyne
Don’t forget, the opposing team was the Phillies. Philadelphians threw snowballs at Santa Claus, fer chrissakes. I’m sure they booed Obama just on principle.
kay
Oh, “blah REAGAN, blah blah, REAGAN”.
Tell old white men to stop reliving Glory Days. We’re bored.
No one gives a shit whether they can throw a baseball, either.
Peter J
Baseball is America’s national pasttime, and Obama clearly sucks at it.
Should he be impeached right now or until the congressional hearings on how good he’s at Kenya’s national passtime, the 3000 m steeplechase, are finished?
Zach
“Don’t forget, the opposing team was the Phillies. Philadelphians threw snowballs at Santa Claus, fer chrissakes. I’m sure they booed Obama just on principle.”
Which recalls what may have been the highlight of 2008 campaign absurdity: Palin using her daughter as a shield against verbal assault at a Fliers game… yeah, that worked.
Jim C
DougJ for the win. Big time.
Who cares if Obama can hit the plate? Arsenal – Barcelona is on in an hour and a half! Priorities, people!
Brendan M
Original Lee @ 18:
PaulW
Obama’s not a pitcher. He’s a Centerfielder. That’s what’s so un-American about it.
Mnemosyne
I do love how the wingnuts complain about Obama doing something that every president has done since William Howard Taft.
You’d think that outrage fatigue would set in at some point (“Omigod, how dare he continue a century-long tradition!”) but I guess Republicans figured out how to make outrage into a perpetual motion machine.
Citizen_X
@GregB:Oh mah Gawd. I hate you I hate you I hate you.
(Yes, I know: you warned us.)
allium
Everyone knows Joseph Stalin invented the eephus pitch.
As an aside, I’ve had the opportunity to throw a ceremonial first pitch at a pro game, and it’s not like they give you the opportunity to warm up in the bullpen. I practiced for a week or so ahead of time (something I hope Obama didn’t waste time doing) and could hit the garbage can at the other end of my backyard fairly regularly, but after waiting in the PR person’s office for an hour and then being hustled out onto the mound I barely managed to hit the plate, let alone throw a strike. But at least I had nachos.
geg6
Martin @43:
You’re probably right. Except, in the all-American white suburb where I grew up, not a single kid in my neighborhood played baseball. We all despised it. We were football (and yes, they let a girl like me play because I was GOOD) and boxing fans back then.
To this day, I don’t watch or follow baseball at all and never plan to. Which is a good thing since I live in Pittsburgh.
Joseph Nobles
So this is the right wing blogger answer to the Wikileaks video? Real Americans always hit their target? Whatevs.
geg6
Martin @72:
Lazy? Seriously?
Get serious, man. Fucking boring shitty ass baseball is a more important use of his time than whatever he may doing with it?
Fuck.me.
I wouldn’t waste my time on shit like this and I’m guessing Obama sees it the same way. If the man has an hour or two of free time, it is much better spent with his wife and daughters than practicing throwing a stupid ass baseball to impress you, the idiot media, and the Teabaggers.
Admiral_Komack
“On Morning Joe, Scarborough brought Obama’s pitch up as often as he could. IOW, Joe was being his usual mature self, hard to differentiate from a 7th grade boy.”
-Let the thin-skinned bastard explain the dead staffer in his office.
That should be worth a couple of laughs.
Ed Drone
Zak @60:
Not true! From the catcher’s (or batter’s, or umpire’s) point-of-view, it was wide RIGHT. That is, to those receiving the pitch, it was to the right. So we have this left-handed POTUS who delivers “the goods” to OUR right, indicating a tendency to move to the right, which, of course, is what has the liberals and progressives so upset.
He is signalling that he will only deliver the country to the right, or at best, center. Our left-winger hopes are dashed, I tell you!
So the damned conservative dipshits have, as usual, mis-read the man, and have their knickers in a twist for no reason at all (Idiots!). It is we who should be upset, not them!
Woe is us!
Ed
Brachiator
Obama should have the press do some body surfing with him the next time he vacations in Hawaii.
Steeplejack
@Eric:
I watched the Phillies-Nats game yesterday, as it was on the Nat-o-centric sports channel here in NoVa. In one of the early innings Obama came into the broadcast booth and talked with the announcers for quite a while, and he said that he didn’t become a White Sox fan until he moved to Chicago. Growing up in Hawaii he was a fan of some Californa team (Angels or Oakland A’s, I think).
kay
The Obamas (as a couple) seem to put a lot of time and effort into children’s events, at the White House and elsewhere. I do not recall so many children tromping through that place in my life, or so many events focused on children.
They should focus on that. They’re naturals :)
bemused
Admiral_Komack:
Joe was chortling like an idiot boy about Obama throwing like a girl & you could tell that he just couldn’t stop thinking about the pitch because he kept going back to it again & again with Mika trying to stifle him.
I can’t imagine working with the guy or being married to him either. I just want to throttle these kind of guys…they just never get that they are buffoons.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mnemosyne #82:
This. This this this and this. This, I say, and once again, this.
Please could we have that line added to the rotating tags, and also flag it for Comment of the Year?
ClutteredMind
I guess it doesn’t matter to these guys that Obama’s basketball skills are well into NBA-quality. He can shoot better than quite a lot of professional basketball players, particularly at three point range. I am certainly not someone who judges authenticity based on athletic skill, but this is pretty weak even for the right. So he can’t throw a baseball very well, big deal. I recall Michael Jordan sucked at baseball when he tried it as well, but no one seemed to give a damn about that because everyone acknowledged that he was a really talented athlete anyway. So is Obama. I guess basketball doesn’t count because it’s filled with dirty brown people who offend the delicate sensibilities of the right.
gwangung
Though I wouldn’t begrudge him time teaching his daughters how to throw a baseball….
Steeplejack
@Dreggas:
I watched the game on the local sports channel here in NoVa, and when Obama put on the White Sox cap it seemed more like good-natured hooting than anything else. (“Good-natured hooting”? Christ–I need a “taxonomy of crowd noises” reference.)
. . . Just called a friend who was actually at the game, and he
confirmed my biasagreed with me. So there.He added that the Nats haven’t been (back?) in Washington that long, so it’s not as if there are a lot of 30-year season-ticket holders in the stands to get the vapors. Good point.
Zifnab
And even if there was, it’s not like Obama being a White Sox fan is some big scary secret. Unless it all ties into that Birth Certificate thing I keep hearing about.
artem1s
wouldn’t it be totally cool if next year he has one of his daughters go out there with him and make the pitch. Fathers/mothers/daughters everywhere would lurv him for it and it would have the added bonus of making Limbaughmort’s head assplode!
Svensker
Are you fucking kidding me?
Obama can’t throw for shit. Who cares? It’s not like he doesn’t have other stuff to do — why should he spend one minute practicing throwing if he doesn’t enjoy it? Good grief.
Next thing you know, we’ll be having POTUS schlong measuring day.
Our country’s going to hell in a hand basket, and a single person is worrying about this? WTF, over.
Elie
[email protected] —
LOL — totally agree — lazy! ahem… Whatever he is – lazy isnt one of those things…
slippy
So, was any mention made by these drones about the incredibly loud booing Bush got the last time he tried to throw out a first pitch?
Of COURSE NOT.
Ash Can
The Prez’s pitch sailed on him, so that means the terrorists have won. Or something.
AxelFoley
It was a terrible pitch, I have to admit. The pitch he did at last year’s All-Star game was way better. I probably coulda done better with MY left hand, and I’m right-handed.
But, it don’t surprise me some conservative blogs are making a big deal outta this.
Tazistan Jen
Svensker
Heh. I am intrigued by your ideas and would like to subscribe to our newsletter.
Redshirt
Agreed on the Bush 01 pitch at Yankee Stadium – best first pitch by a President ever, and clearly marked the high point of the Bush Admin.
Jules
Wonkette’s post yesterday was pretty funny:
Barak Obama Still Throws Like UnReal American
The Chief
Is it just me, or wasn’t a lousy first pitch by the Prez pretty much the norm before Dubya threw his great one after 9/11? (Actually, having been to many baseball games, it’s pretty much the norm for all ceremonial first pitches.) Used to be that everyone would just chuckle briefly about it and then move on because it wasn’t that important. Now we’re supposed to dig into it for “what it means” or some crap.
Gimme a break.
Mnemosyne
I’m a hopeless Obot, because I got a little misty watching him shake the hands of the honor guard.
ruemara
He’s not fat enough to be winded from walking out there.
Unamerican skinny commie.
ruemara
Last I read on this, he was booed for putting on the White Sox cap. Otherwise, he was Yay’ed until that point.
Martin
Yeah, because I couldn’t have qualified that statement enough, could I have:
I didn’t suggest he was actually lazy. It’s what my reaction to the pitch was, that’s all. I’m more than happy to accept that I’m unique in this respect.
Original Lee
FlipYourWing: You are of course correct that Dubya never played. But the average wingnut remembers “baseball team” and “Dubya” and makes the wrong connection. I forgot to close my snark tag.
DanF
“Sox” was the name of Bill Clinton’s cat and Bill Clinton got a blow job and that made the baby Jesus cry, but all Obama can do is laugh. It’s no wonder everyone hates him. Also, too.
asiangrrlMN
Martin, he’s wearing a bullet-proof vest. I am sure that hampered his efforts. Maybe he just can’t pitch? You say your daughters can pitch, but probably not at that distance. I have shoulder problems in my throwing arm so I now can’t throw as well as I did when I was a teen. I could practice for ten hours and not be able to throw that pitch.
Whatever. He threw a bad pitch. Let’s move on.
DanF, I like your response the best because you linked in Clinton. Way to go!
Remember November
effing twaddleknockers…the catcher caught it- it didn’t hit the mascot so quit your effing bitching Cons. Baseball’s not the man’s sport. If we based our leader on pitching skills we’d have Pedro (Gasp a hee-spanic!) Martinez at the helm ferpetesake.
Origuy
Any politician will get some boos at a baseball game, no matter where it is. It’s a tradition that goes back probably to Grover Cleveland.
jackmac
The Sox hat was a nice touch. Then again, he’s never been afraid to proclaim his baseball loyalties. And I love having a Sox Fan-in-Chief in the Oval!
Mike E
I could care less if he wears his Sox hat when the Phillies visit the White House–again. Also.
Fightins, bitchez!
Gene
I listened to Rush Limbaugh while making a short business trip this afternoon. Rush mentioned Obama’s pitch, which I hadn’t seen, was done deliberately to insult women because his throwing motion was so awkward, he is making fun of how girls throw.
Amazing leap in logic, but I bet millions of listeners agreed with him.