Not to go all shameless cheerleader on you all, but how can you not like this guy:
At an event in Oklahoma today, the president was shaking hands with some of the people assembled to meet him. One woman announced that she and the president have Hawaii in common as their place of birth.
“Oh, you’re Hawaiian like me?” he asked, smiling, “Well, do you have your birth certificate?”
He cracks me up sometimes.
beltane
Can you imagine the Romney-bot joking with a human life form in this way?
mk3872
I think she even said she was born in the same hospital, wasn’t she? Maybe America’s Top Sheriff needs to investigate her, too? She may need to be deported …
pacem appellant
Remind again why he’s a “black” “Jimmy Carter?” I may have been in diapers, but JC was never this personable. Or funny! It’d be just as insulting to call the ol’ peanut farmer a white Barack Obama, except, sir, he’s no BO!
trollhattan
Him, I’d have the presidential beer with. That so much is projected on him by his detractors that not only has no connection to realtiy but seems to be quite the opposite, seems bizarre after nearly four years in office.
Small world connection, a friend’s brother went to school with “Barry” in Hawaii. They used to have Koran readings at lu…oops, I wasn’t supposed to share that bit!
Cowbelle
Can you imagine the Romney-bot joking with a human life form in this way?
His “jokes” are things like “I’m also unemployed.”
dmsilev
@beltane: He’s tried. The results have been amusing, though probably not in the manner specified in the Romneytronic’s firmware.
ShadeTail
Whatever the hell kind of video file that is, it isn’t even trying to load for me. But if you follow the string of links from the article in question, you end up at the original youtube video.
Might want to try embedding this one instead, Mr. Cole.
Maude
Obama is always himself. His sense of humor is grand.
cthulhu
@pacem appellant:
I am sure that term is meant derisively but one thing Obama and Carter do have in common is that they actually care about improving the quality of life for as many people as possible.
Brian
@pacem appellant: JC was a good man, did a lot of things right and presided over a shitty economy that wasn’t his fault.
Brachiator
This was also cool
The student later made a video about the experience, clearly moved by a simple act of humanity and acknowledgment.
This reminds me again of what the Food Truck Guy who comes by our office says: “I love this guy. I just love him.”
iriedc
His ability to laugh at Birthers proves – once again- that he has a level of tolerance & restriant I don’t have. I’m finally laughing too.
Corner Stone
@trollhattan:
Now you went and did it!
Allah be praised, we* can’t keep a fucking thing secret anymore!
*myself and the other 5000 Hezbollah waiting patiently in the US until the code to STRIKE is given.
Yutsano
As a human also born on the island of Oahu, I am damn proud of the fact that I share a birth island with the President. Hawai’ians represent!!
Cat Lady
He’s the coolest cat ever. He’s just totally comfortable with who he is and what he knows, and emotionally, he has what the Dalai Lama calls a stable mind. He’s extraordinary, and oh, also this.
/Obot
PeakVT
@Cowbelle: He’d say something like, Oh, so you’re from Michagan, too? Bet you can’t draw it with an Etch-a-sketch.
ItAintEazy
Also notice how, unlike the last president, he didn’t keep a Purell dispenser at the ready right after he shook peoples hands?
I know, it’s dumb to be amazed at that, but it’s just the simple thing, you know?
Arclite
What got me about that vid is how relaxed and natural and good natured the prez is. Then, as he walks off, you can see the security detail is ALL business. Their faces are intense.
OzoneR
He said he was Hawaiian, not American. /snark
Ken
@Corner Stone: I thought you guys were waiting in Mexico…
Lojasmo
Assessing a post procedure patient in the lab:
Me: “who is the president?”
Him: “Barack Obama is my friend”
/loopy on sedatives
Punchy
John’s O-man fanboi mancrush on display….
Jay in Oregon
@beltane:
It’d probably look something like this: http://romnoid.tumblr.com/
scav
@Lojasmo: I think I like the results of this poll.
Tom Q
@Brian: I always thought, to quote one of America’s favorite movies, that Jimmy Carter was a very good man, but a very bad wizard.
Barack, on the other hand, is good in both departments.
Ben Franklin
@Yutsano:
Geevum! Brah…
Davis X. Machina
Not liking him is bipartisan:
Occupy Maine to counter Obama event with soup line
Occupy Maine said it plans to counter President Obama’s March 30 fundraiser at the Portland Museum of Art with a soup line in Congress Square.
The group said it’s calling itself “Occupy Obama’s Ritzy Fundraiser” for the evening.
“While he (Obama) is having his dinner for the 1% inside, we’ll be serving soup dinnah for the 99% on the streets,” Occupy Maine said in an e-mail to supporters on Friday.
The group said it will gather in Congress Square about 3 p.m. and “go mobile” after 5 p.m.
“Bring your soup spoons, empty stock pots and signs!” the e-mail said. “Make some noise!”
See how he brings Americans together?
David Koch
pRiMaRy hhYm3
H33 w0RuST dAn ɥsnq
rUN p0L3/jAn3 2012!
quannlace
Easy now! Cause one of the persistent right-wing obsessions is the idea that Obama’s where he is because of his (drum roll) ‘Cult of Personality.’
See, we Liberals only voted for him cause we’re all in abject thrall of his magnetism. I mean, the idea that people voted for Obama cause they thought he was the best candidate? Hilarious!!
Egg Berry
@pacem appellant:
Actually, by the standards of the time, Carter was very personable. I remember as a child thinking he would be president, because he was so much more of a likable person than his opponent.
Ben Franklin
@Davis X. Machina:
That should help with the valuable small donor.
Mnemosyne
@Brachiator:
I’m guessing that the president took a gamble that the student wasn’t just saying “eff you” in ASL. Still, pretty damn cool to be able to respond correctly in a split second like that.
Xecky Gilchrist
@pacem appellant: Remind again why he’s a “black” “Jimmy Carter?” I may have been in diapers, but JC was never this personable.
I was lucky enough to meet Jimmy Carter in the mid-80s, and he is not without charm. However, I suspect Obama’s charisma is in the megawatt range, so it’s a tough comparison on old Jimmy.
pacem appellant
@Brian: Not disagreeing. His legacy in my childhood was marred by my Reagan-fanboy father and a few SNL sketches. My comment was meant in jest, but mostly, if he’s the Black Jimmy Carter, then what was so wrong with Jimmy Carter himself?!? Obama has accomplished a lasting legacy in in nearly 4 years as CIC, more so than Bush Jr was able to do in 8 (though I confess to mildly admiring the younger a bit as he winded down his term as he tried to rehabilitate his reputation, but alas, too little, WAY too late).
I get the derision, that between “black” and “Jimmy Carter” what’s to love? But honestly, what’s to hate? Maybe I’m star-struck too, but my job prospects improved under BO, and the only thing that’s affected us economically is that ARRA wasn’t big enough (as my partner’s industry is more reliant on fed and state capital improvements).
I’d be easily happy with another 4 of the big O. I wonder in all naivety what was to love about The Great Communicator? So the wall came down, great, but what did he do for me? (or my father, who still adores Reagan, despite the lousy economy that cost him his chance at being a millionaire by age 40).
Bludger
He is a naturally funny guy.
Corner Stone
@Ken:
Well, we were, but after the extreme drought in TX last year it was just so easy to cross over we decided to…Gdamnit! There I go again!
I hope my Terror Commander doesn’t hear of this!
gnomedad
Fools! “Hawaiian” is Kenyan for “Kenyan”.
Egg Berry
@pacem appellant:
History would indicate not so much, actually.
Ira-NY
Good guy.
Clime Acts
It’s true: He is extraordinary. Truly remarkable. The best ever.
He is a child of light; a candle in our darkness.
As a nation and a people, we simply don’t deserve him.
Hill Dweller
@Mnemosyne: There is video of the First Lady using sign language(more than a simple ‘thank you’) when greeting someone at the WH. Perhaps she taught the President a few commonly used signs.
JGabriel
GOPers gots nuthin‘:
The RNC is apparently being run now by bitchy 15-year-old mean girls. These idiots are beyond parody.
.
Egg Berry
@Davis X. Machina: If they were actually giving out soup, that wouldn’t be a bad idea, really.
eric
@Davis X. Machina: i am not sure what purpose this serves…..he is not proposing enough federal aid for the poor? tell that to Congress. I just dont see how this aids the cause. is it the onion?
Corner Stone
It’s posts like these that make me so thankful for having NoScript installed.
Cat Lady
@JGabriel:
20 years from now, Obamacare will be like Kleenex or Vaseline or Social Security. It’s going to be big. The RNC has no idea what the fuck they’ve done.
Thoughtcrime
@beltane:
Once RMoneybot is recognized as obsolete it will be reprogrammed and reintroduced as Humorbot:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tNMGev1t9M
Anya
@Corner Stone: So, that’s why you and Just Some Fuckhead disappeared, you were conducting sleeper cell training?
Clime Acts
Cole: I salute you on your shameless and masterful manipulation of the Juicitariat, myself included.
Just enough red meat to each subgroup to keep us all hopping.
Really.
gogol's wife
@Clime Acts:
We don’t deserve him. Well, I do, but a lot of people don’t.
/Proud Obot.
ETA: And now I realize that you were being snarky, but I don’t care. I add one more person who doesn’t deserve him. Have fun with Pres. Romney.
MattR
@JGabriel: Wow. I am shocked that the RNC doesn’t know how Facebook works. Or has Facebook started including the option to “love” things and I missed it?
@Hill Dweller: Was just watching the video of the First Lady signing and it looked like she was spelling out what she wanted to say (but my experience with ASL is very limited)
Clime Acts
@Corner Stone:
lol
Davis X. Machina
@eric:
Not the Onion — the Portland Press Herald. — state’s biggest daily.
David Koch
You Obots can celebrate all you want, but he’s lost the black vote, especially after today.
WereBear
@quannlace: Cult of Personality? Yeah, President Obama has one.
Clime Acts
@gogol’s wife:
The fact that it took you a while to catch that reveals the depths of your child like Obama worship. Cute.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Clime Acts:
Oh shut the fuck up already.
WaterGirl
In 2008 there was a great video of Barack on Conan. It was before he started running, so maybe 2007? They were riffing off one another and it was very very funny. I looked for the video awhile ago, but could only find one short clip, not the 5 or 10 minutes. I will give my first born to anyone that finds the whole thing.
Corner Stone
@Anya: Just Some Fuckhead has decided to take a sabbatical to the mountaintop where he and Cole cemented their “forever” friendship with the help of a little (lot) mescaline.
He’s at peace with himself and his world now, divining deeper truths that have helped him understand the negativity he encountered at this site. And the pain that caused him.
gogol's wife
@Clime Acts:
You edited your message during the time it took me to write mine. When my message went up, yours had been changed to be more obviously snarky.
Again I say, you will deserve everything you get from President Romney. I won’t.
Clime Acts
@Litlebritdifrnt:
giggle
Litlebritdifrnt
@Cat Lady:
Notice the absolute outrage in the UK with the Tories trying to piss about with the NHS.
Hill Dweller
@WaterGirl: “My fellow Obamas…”
Cat Lady
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Taking away things from people they’ve always had isn’t a winning strategy, anywhere, any time.
jibeaux
@MattR: Yes, yes, very telling that Obama did not choose the heretofore unknown “love” option on facebook. For that matter, why didn’t they choose the “I would totally hit that” option, huh Democrats???
Clime Acts
Why does American presidential politics, on both sides, always have to come down to idol worship and arguments over which political entertainer is more groovy?
Seriously.
During the Reagan and Bush years I’d hear people talk about how awesome the two twits were in person and I’d vomit in my mouth. Why does it matter that you get to pretend Obama is a smooth and cool guy and you can imagine yourself having beers with him? Haven’t we heard that before somewhere?
David Koch
@WaterGirl: You mean this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXO0RS1rXCk
RD
@Corner Stone:
I call shenanigans. Clime Acts is JSF in a bear suit.
pluege
I can like him and still hate his lying two-faced, double-talking, progressive-undermining policies, and wish like hell I had an alternative to cast my vote for.
…and his approach to civil rights and human rights is just shameless.
JGabriel
@Cat Lady:
Honestly, I hope not.
As much as Obamacare improves health care over the status quo, it’s still an expensive (though cheaper than the current system) unwieldly patchwork of mostly corporate insurance options. Twenty years down the line, I hope we will have moved past it to something better, like a single-payer system.
.
Daaling
Yea whatever bandwagon rider Cole. A true supporter supports the prez all the time. Not when it’s easy or cool or whatever.
You weren’t a supporter when the everyone was listening to firebaggers complaining about everything the prez did.
So fuck you is basically all I am saying. Go hang with Cenk, Arianna, Greenwald and the other fuckheads.
General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)
All the cool protest kids are gonna call you an Obot.
eemom
This is precisely why I keep telling all the nervous nellies wringing their hands over narrow margins and republican wurlitzers, when the Obama campaign hasn’t even STARTED yet, that they’re fools.
Pause for a moment and contemplate Obama sharing a stage with Romtron. Fer the love of Jesus, just PICTURE it.
Game. fucking. over.
Daaling
Yea whatever bandwagon rider Cole. A true supporter supports the prez all the time. Not just when it’s easy or cool or whatever.
You weren’t a supporter when everyone was listening to firebaggers complaining about everything the prez did.
So fuck you is basically all I am saying. Go hang with Cenk, Arianna, Greenwald and the other fuckheads.
Mnemosyne
@JGabriel:
It’s almost like the Obama campaign is riffing off of a famous presidential campaign slogan from years past. It must have been for a Democrat, though, because a Republican would never come up with something like that, amirite?
Mnemosyne
@JGabriel:
To be fair, at this point in Social Security, most African-Americans were excluded from participation because the law was written to exclude the jobs that they were most likely to hold. So assuming that PPACA won’t change an iota in the next 20 or 50 years seems like a mug’s game.
Marcellus Shale, Public Dick
@Corner Stone:
it always ends with western grip hand jobs with you, doesn’t it?
btw i am not judging i posted the ad for tenga fliphole earlier
General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero)
@Anya:
More like off to college majoring in Mutual Reach Arounds
OzoneR
@Clime Acts:
I like him because I have can beers with him. I vote for him because he took a step, at great political cost, toward a fairer healthcare system; a more equal society by repealing DOMA and being against DOMA and for the DREAM Act; mandating birth control coverage so all women have equal access to it; negotiating and signing into law a $700 billion+ stimulus package that saved us from the Great Depression; using substantial political capital to leverage the government to save the important auto industry and with it a dying part of the country; Ending a war that had been a mistake since day one…the list goes on
Cat Lady
@JGabriel:
Agreed, and that’s what I mean. Medicare didn’t happen all at once, it evolved, and 20 years from now we’ll have Medicare for all, aka Obamacare.
RD
@Daaling:
Who would you like see as president?
Anne Laurie
@David Koch: Still boring.
OzoneR
@JGabriel:
I took it as that being the point.
The new bill, like all social welfare creations, will be perfected over the years, providing we elect people determined to do it, But it will always belong to Obama, Pelosi and those who crafted it originally.
SiubhanDuinne
@Brian:
Still is.
chrome agnomen
@Mnemosyne:
heh indeedy. that’s the first one i actually remember. there was a republican party then that i disagreed with, but could still find some respect for. times change.
gbear
TBogg chased all the trolls off his site tonight. Did they all come over here?
Citizen_X
@Corner Stone:
Goddammit! I always miss the sign-up sheet for those seminars.
gwangung
Um, wasn’t that the POINT? Aren’t there many more examples of major systemic changes that start out gradually than there are that accomplish everything in swell foop?
SiubhanDuinne
@eemom:
I get just a little tad nervous about complacency. And hubris. Let’s not get so cocky about the undoubted superiority of Obama over . . . well, anybody . . . that we relax because it’s “in the bag.”
Gex
@Cat Lady: Which is why I love it when libertarian types try to “help” gay people by suggesting the government get out of marriage altogether. That’s not going to be *less* contentious, you idiots.
Cat Lady
@Gex:
I’ve had that ridiculous argument with FB wingnuts – who is going to issue a marriage license – the legal proof of marriage – if government gets out of marriage? Guess what – I never got an answer. Morans, all of them.
Roger Moore
@pacem appellant:
What do you mean? Bush has a huge legacy: not one but two unfinished wars, a massive deficit, and an economy on the brink of a complete meltdown. That’s mostly the worst legacy for any president since Buchanan, but you can’t deny that it’s a lasting legacy.
Linkmeister
@Yutsano: Not born on Oahu, but I have lived here since 1978. Will that do? ;)
Roger Moore
@RD:
That sounds an old Letterman act. Can JSF in a Bear Suit Hail a Cab?
eemom
@SiubhanDuinne:
I have said many, many times that complacency is NOT acceptable.
There is imo a huge-ass difference between not being complacent and taking nothing for granted and working like hell to get every vote IRL — and idiot concern trolls bloviating on blogs about how doomed we are.
Roger Moore
@JGabriel:
Yeah, but it may still be called “Obamacare” rather than anything else. Remember that Social Security and Medicare have undergone a lot of changes since they were first introduced, but they’re so popular nobody wants to change the names for fear of pissing off people who depend on them. If Obamacare is popular enough, the name may wind up sticking the same way.
Rick Taylor
People used to say the same thing about George Bush (even someone like Molly Ivins, who was horrified when he was elected). I never understood that, but yes, I can’t help but like Obama. Even when I disagree with his policy, he’s just a very decent human being.
JGabriel
@gwangung:
Yep. My point was that I’m hoping the change is significant enough that we’re not still calling it Obamacare — though I’ve no objection to it if the name persists.
.
dogwood
@Clime Acts:
How on earth do you equate a simple acknowledgment that the President is easy to like on a basic human level with “idol worship”?
PurpleGirl
Read through comment 34 — I think the “Black Jimmy Carter” thing is a wish that President Obama will be a ONE term president as President Carter was.
Returning to comment reading…
Anya
@Clime Acts: God, what a tiresome prick! Get over yourself!
PurpleGirl
I think the President’s comment asking the woman if she had her birth certificate was just fantastic. And his response in ASL to the student is a double fantastic.
Anya
@Corner Stone: Oh, that’s so sweet.
S. cerevisiae
@Cat Lady: My God, did you read the comments to that? Is that a PUMA site?
Clime Acts
@pluege:
gasp!
But he’s so cool!
Lojasmo
@Clime Acts:
Childlike is one word, moron.
Clime Acts
@Anya:
Dear sweet, clueless Anya.
Anya
@General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero): I shouldn’t but I LOL’d
Anya
@General Stuck (Bravo Nope Zero): I shouldn’t but I LOL’d
eemom
@Clime Acts:
Timmy, please join us on the next thread wherein Cole validates your observation at #49.
Clime Acts
@Lojasmo:
lol.
Yes, misspellings and dicey grammar are rare on the Intertrons, especially in comment sections.
Thank you for correcting ALL of them and not just singling me out.
Lojasmo
@Clime Acts:
My interest in bad grammar is directly proportional to commentariat douchiness, it’s probably related to my upbringing. You can deal with it, I’m sure.
Cat Lady
@S. cerevisiae:
I only read the comments in Balloon Juice. Nothing good happens when you read comments anywhere else.
S. cerevisiae
@Cat Lady: Spittle-flecked frenzy over the near President can be funny as hell, the problem is these nuts vote.
AxelFoley
@pluege:
You do have an alternative, muthafucka. Vote for Ron Paul.
Cat Lady
@S. cerevisiae:
I believe that there are a slim majority of reasonable people that don’t hang out on political blogs all day who aren’t teatards or bitter ended PUMAs and that when they look up from their jobs after they put the kids to bed at the end of a long day, they see Obama being the adult in the room acting and talking like the president of the whole country, and then he’s got that laugh and smile and that beautiful loving family. That’s how Barack Hussein Obama got elected after George W. Bush. He’s remarkable.
/Obot
russell
That man’s hair is going to be snow white by the time he leaves office.
Just saying.
A Humble Lurker
@Clime Acts:
Even better than all that, he doesn’t defend pedophiles.
Jeffro
@Egg Berry: I pi$$ed my parents off to no end when, at age 7-8, I wandered in to some Campaign ’76 news broadcast (a post debate thing? who knows) and declared that they should vote for THAT GUY (Carter) “because he is so nice…nicer”.
Thanksgiving get-togethers haven’t been the same since. =)
David Koch
@S. cerevisiae:
No, actually it’s has a lot of emoprog types.
David Koch
@JGabriel:
You might have Medicare for all, where people of any age can voluntarily join, but you’ll never have single-payer system where private insurance companies are completely banned in favor of a single government based insurance. I realize that works in other countries, such as our nearest neighbor, Canada, but in general it is rare for Americans to support eliminating a private industry.
TaMara (BHF)
@WaterGirl: Honey, have you picked up your cat yet? ;-)
Tony the Wonderhorse
The mark of a great man is that he never loses his sense of humor. He’s still a pandering doofus sometimes, but who isn’t?
And I am shedding my false skin as Skippy the Wondermule as of this comment to reveal my true self, Tony the Wonderhorse!
hitchhiker
this thread is a lot better with the pie filter on.
Mr Furious
After reading so much about Trayvon Martin, and watching an ABC News piece on how black mothers have to coach their young teen sons how to walk through life without frightening white people and getting shot by cops, am I the only one who thought how much more difficult life must be for a young black man who is also deaf? How exponentially greater the odds are for that student to be shot by police in some horrible mishap versus a 25 year old white student?
We still have a lonnnng-ass way to go as a country.
daize
More goodness here!
http://wonkette.com/467948/wonkette-exclusive-president-obama-tells-birth-certificate-joke-to-nice-lady-in-oklahoma
Cat Lady
@Mr Furious:
I think that this event was eye opening for a lot of people, white people in particular, about how white privilege works. There are a lot of things white people don’t think twice about because they don’t have to and therefore are unaware of the fact that there’s something they enjoy that dark skinned people can’t from the moment they’re born.