“WRONG! He said, “Who’s in a weight battle apparently...” while pointing at the headline held up by Lauer. Let’s keep it real.”
My mother always said “if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” Nothing compelled Obama to take note of Simpson’s weight battle. Indeed, I’d be astonished if US or similar magazines haven’t run nearly identical headlines about Oprah’s chronic struggles with her weight. Yet it is inconceivable Obama would have made the equivalent joke at Oprah’s expense were she the one who had displaced him on the cover.
His comment assuredly was not as offensive as it could have been: he didn’t actually call her a fattie, for example. But if you were JS and saw that interview, would you be feeling pride or shame in how your president elected to talk about you? The point is, the comment displayed a degree of narcissism and arrogance not particularly endearing and to some extent downright discomfiting in a commander-in-chief. Sadly, I think Obama was peeved about being bumped (there are many other incidents from the campaign trail consistent with that view) and he expressed his irritation in a passive-aggressive fashion: a throwaway remark that he could overtly dismiss as “just a joke” but which at a deeper level likely was intended (consciously or unconsciously: I don’t pretend to know the depth of BHO’s soul) to be hurtful to the individual who had only in the smallest way stolen what he viewed as HIS spotlight.
Yes, there are far more serious concerns about Obama. But I think tiny incidents like this cumulatively will come to be the measure of the man. He’s pretty self-absorbed and in many ways lacking in class. Like Obama, President Bush was a fitness “nut” yet can you picture him ever making such a mean-spirited remark?
OK, I watched the video and have reflected on this.
The Left started this crap. "Anything you do or say can and will be used against you in the court of public opinion."
Obama has to begin to understand that he lives in a fish bowl now. He needed to say something nice about Ms. Simpson, or nothing at all.
Yes, it was totally innocuous. But DrC's post hit the nail right on the head.
People who live in White Houses should consider their every word to be a possible stone...
PS - NewsBusters has corrected their version of NBC's incorrect transcript (NBC still has the wrong quote online).
Bush would have immediately said something like..."It makes perfect sense to have all these pretty ladies on the cover instead of this ugly mug!" (meaning himself).
Pres. Biggie O has no class. Period, dot, bingo! (reference to Biden, for those that may have forgotten)
Maybe JS is a Republican - that’s why he felt “compelled” to say something.
Just like he was “compelled” to mention that he’d be rooting for the Steelers since the owner “made sizable contributions” to his campaign.
No?