Posted on 04/04/2014 4:59:34 AM PDT by Kaslin
resident Obama was doing his favorite thing this week: talking to crowds of adoring young people who already agree with him while acting like he persuaded them about something.
They also seemed to give Obama the impression that he's a really funny guy. On Wednesday, he told a crowd of 1,400 at the University of Michigan that he visited a local deli, Zingerman's. He proceeded to tell a long story about ordering the small Reuben sandwich, which he said was "killer." That description got a good laugh. Then he explained how he thought the sandwich was too big, so he shared it with his advisor, Valerie Jarrett.
"After I finished [my] half, I wanted [her] half back," Obama said. "But it was too late, all she had was the pickle -- so I took the pickle."
"Took the pickle" was a huge laugh line.
Pickle is a funny word, but still; when an audience thinks this is a knee-slapper, you know it's not a rough crowd.
But Obama had a serious point to make as well. Zingerman's "is a business that treats its workers well and rewards honest work with honest wages. And that's what I'm here to talk about today." He then segued into a pitch for raising the minimum wage.
National Review's Andrew Johnson noted that Zingerman's is pretty expensive. That small Reuben cost $13.99 -- pickle included! (Thank you! I'm here all week. Please tip your servers.) The large goes for nearly $17. The irony might have been lost on the president that Zingerman's "honest wages" also lead to high prices.
Using Zingerman's as his comedic muse, the president transformed into Zinger-Man. According to the Washington Post, Obama hurled "a series of zingers to draw a contrast with Republicans on the economy in an election year."
Breaking slightly from the standard talking point that the GOP is out of ideas, Obama said, "Now, to give them credit, they do have one original idea, which is to repeal Obamacare."
He then turned to Rep. Paul Ryan's budget proposal: "If they tried to sell this sandwich at Zingerman's, they'd have to call it the Stinkburger, or the Meanwich."
Not since the First Barbary War, when Thomas Jefferson proclaimed, "I see London, I see France, I see John Adams' underpants" has a president so successfully combined deep wit with biting criticism of a political opponent. (Yes, that was a joke, in case the absence of the word "pickle" threw you off.)
It should go without saying that an audience that thinks this is A-grade material will think Obama's "zingers" hit the mark. The problem, for both Obama and his audience alike, is that the president is utterly incapable of arguing with anything other than a fictional opponent. In 2012, he had to turn Mitt Romney into a cancer-causing extremist who wants to declare war on binders full of women.
Now, the focused-grouped line is that the GOP is "the party of no," has "no agenda" and only wants to repeal Obamacare. Meanwhile, the president loves to say he's open to good ideas from anybody, including Republicans. But, alas, the GOP refuses to offer any. Last summer, Obama announced that if the Republicans "had some better ideas" on health care, he was "happy to hear them. But I haven't heard any so far."
In reality, the supposedly agenda-less Republican-controlled House has passed more than 40 bills, all of which have gone on to die in the Democrat-controlled Senate (while Obama himself has unilaterally repealed vast swaths of his own law). In recent years, the GOP has offered no less than five comprehensive health care reform proposals. Some honest liberals, like The New Republic's Jonathan Cohn, concede that "Republicans do have plenty of ideas." But, they won't achieve "universal coverage, at least in the way most people understand it."
Never mind that Obamacare fails that same test. When the president pitched the Affordable Care Act in 2009, there were roughly 30 million uninsured. The Congressional Budget Office projects that in 10 years there will be ... roughly 30 million uninsured under Obamacare. According to Gallup, more people are uninsured today than when Obama took office. Indeed, most of the alleged 7 million "enrollees" in Obamacare are people who lost their health insurance because of Obamacare.
Perhaps the biggest irony is that the young people Obama had in stitches are being forced to pay too much for health insurance in order to subsidize health care for others. In other words, they're laughing at the pickle, but the joke is really on them.
I’m seeing a Sammy Davis Jounior skit. Where is Saturday Night Live when you need ‘em?
They have a person who says “ The emperor is laughing now. you are invited to join in”.
And like people around Stalin, nobody wants to be the first to stop laughing at his lame ass jokes.
I completely disagree: Democrats are telling us NO keeping your current health insurance or doctors, NO drilling for oil in Alaska, NO coal-fired electrical power plants, NO military superiority. And WE are the party of "no"???????
'Bout sums up his entire philosophy.
The GOP could have more campaign material, talking points and political ads regarding this joker’s blunders. Yet they are talking about amnesty among other stupidities.
This guy is a petulant child. Any deft politico could destroy this moron and do it in an intelligent way without resorting to gutter politics.
I can’t believe this is what this nation has fallen to. President “Man Child” and his “mommy” handler.
Other parts of his schtick: calling people “folks,” and jogging up and down stairs. I always marvel at how he gets onto a stage — his fists clenched and bouncing at his abdomen. And the other day I saw him coming down the long stairs of Air Force One that way. It’s supposed to project youth and coolness. It just looks ridiculous.
“The irony might have been lost on the president that Zingerman’s “honest wages” also lead to high prices.”
No irony here. How the hell would Zero know the relative cost of ANYTHING? He has NO frame of reference to make that assessment.
And, it has never been a secret that he has NO economic savvy.
Who is against drilling for oil in Alaska?
Who is against Coal Fired electric power plants?
Who is against American military superiority?
Answer: The Rats are and that is a fact
What a card. When he leaves office - and that can't happen soon enough! - he can go do stand-up. Of course he'd fail miserably.
American society is so screwed... all one can do is plan on how to survive once the land slide begins...
Poor Zingerman’s... The Obamacide curse. They will be out of business in a year’s time and they don’t even know it yet.
Barry hides the pickle.
Premier O’Bozo is a laugh a minute, isn’t he?
“Other parts of his schtick: calling people “folks,” and jogging up and down stairs. I always marvel at how he gets onto a stage — his fists clenched and bouncing at his abdomen. And the other day I saw him coming down the long stairs of Air Force One that way. It’s supposed to project youth and coolness. It just looks ridiculous.”
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
I look out my window at Oak and Hickory trees, high off the ground in those trees are Penthouse apartments, inhabited by creatures who come down and stand on the grown in the same pose with two little paws clenched in front of their bellies, they have long fluffy tails. They too are prone to chatter in a language that means nothing to me. I wonder if one of them will wind up running for president. Wait, is that a tiny teleprompter I see out there?
Obama is a good example of what a male becomes from a fatherless household
He’s screwed up so many jokes in the last few days. I guess he’s now bored and has moved on from jokes. Our president has officially become George Sanders.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.