Thursday, January 29, 2009

So Much For Obama's Flinty Chicago Toughness (Updated)

It's really not a big deal--just put it in the same folder as his desire to be president of these 57 states.

On the one hand, Obama ruffled some feathers when he commented this week:
"My children's school was canceled today," Obama said, speaking to reporters before a meeting with business leaders. "Because of what? Some ice? . . . We're going to have to apply some flinty Chicago toughness to this town."
Yet at the same time, Obama seems to be not quite as flinty as he would have us believe:
The capital flew into a bit of a tizzy when, on his first full day in the White House, President Obama was photographed in the Oval Office without his suit jacket. There was, however, a logical explanation: Mr. Obama, who hates the cold, had cranked up the thermostat.

“He’s from Hawaii, O.K.?” said Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, David Axelrod, who occupies the small but strategically located office next door to his boss. “He likes it warm. You could grow orchids in there.” [emphasis added]
This reminds me of the time Obama made of criticizing Americans who do not know a second language
After telling parents that “instead of worrying about whether immigrants can learn English — they'll learn English — you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish,” Obama expresses his frank embarrassment at Americans’ language skills:
You know it’s embarrassing when Europeans come over here. They all speak English, they speak French, they speak German, and then we go over to Europe, and all we can say is merci beaucoup. Right?
Yet at the same time, Obama later admitted that he himself did not know a second language.
Of course, that is confused by the fact that back in 1997, Obama claimed to speak 4 languages.

If people really think that there is nothing about Obama for comedians to make fun of, they just aren't trying.


And Mark Hemingway adds:
So this is the same President that said, "We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times . . . and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK." [see here]

Check out Memeorandum for more.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I see that President-elect Barack Obaman wants everyone to learn a foreign language, but which one should it be?

The British learn French, the Australians study Japanese, and the Americans prefer Spanish.

Yet this leaves Mandarin Chinese out of the equation.

Then why not a language like Esperanto?

Detail can be seen at http://www.lernu.net