[an amused spectator]

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.

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).

[an amused spectator]

Obama is trained in tactics by which the powerless can unseat the powerful, namely thuggery, demonization, & making a stink. these methods are not appropriate for a President. Yet he continues to use the same low-rent tactics.

Marylander's post has a good point.

Are Obama's Alinskyite reflexes showing?

[TYVets]

Zero plays the Fat Card.

[skr]

I should’ve expanded a bit. It looks as though he is reading a headline, as opposed to giving a spontaneous opinion. However, from what I’ve read before and as DrC noted, Obama may be practicing his method of seemingly innocuous tactlessness which is really public humiliation of a perceived threat. If other reports of his treatment of white students, his middle finger gestures, etc. are correct, he’s a manipulator of the worst sort.

Pathetically, what are the chances Jessica Simpson didn’t vote for him?