The caption on this video was that Obama was being harassed by an eBay heckler who wanted a picture with the Senator. I don’t know if the man was intending to sell the photo on eBay or not, but the lack of eye contact and the refusal of Obama to acknowlege the guy in many of the frames left me wondering how he got so far in politics. One picture at the beginning of this whole episode would have avoided the whole thing.
You be the judge
And what difference is it to Obama if the guy sells on eBay?
[One note: Obama was complaining that the man interrupted his greeting of a child. This is a legitimate complaint, as I had it happen with my own daughter and President Bush. A rather large and politically-connected man pushed her aside, and stepped in front of her just as she was going to shake the president's hand at an event. She never got the chance again. It would have been a lifetime event for her. He probably had met the prez before.]
If you were Obama’s advisor, what advice would you give for how this should have been handled?
April 3rd, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Pretty petty on Obama’s part. Who does he think he is, a rock star? Oh, never mind.
But how would Obama act if the man was panhandling or asked him for some food? I can only imagine.
April 3rd, 2008 at 2:17 pm
I don’t know, I heard this on Hannity’s show today. The guy sounded real annoying. I would of told the guy to piss off too.
April 3rd, 2008 at 2:24 pm
Non-issue. The man clearly is annoying. What disturbs me, though, is how close he got to Obama even though he wasn’t a welcome presence. Secret Service let him get close enough to touch Obama. Aren’t they their to prevent people like that from getting close?
April 3rd, 2008 at 3:09 pm
The Secret service have take a bit of criticism over Obama’s protection, whereas McCain has rejected protection on the grounds that, they cannot assure his safety.
Bloomberg ran a piece on each candidates protection, I found the code names particularly illuminating.
Hillary Clinton – Evergreen
Bill Clinton – Elvis / Eagle
Barack Obama – Renegade
Michelle Obama – Renaissance
April 3rd, 2008 at 9:50 pm
The question is, would the man have gotten his picture if he were black? My guess is YES…so in short, Whitey is refused a picture.
April 4th, 2008 at 3:02 am
Ignatius, I wondered the same thing. I couldn’t believe the guy could get so close and be able to continually get right next to him.
As president, he’ll have to deal with lots of annoying people. The lack of eye contact with the man is disturbing.
I was a candidate (admittedly NOT presidential material!
), and you don’t just walk away from annoying people.
My advice: once the man interrupted, Obama should have called him on it – look him in the eye and say the lines he used later while walking away from him, “look guy, you just interrupted a child, you are being rude and I won’t take a picture with you.” Later, he could have referred to that same conversation, “I told you back there when you interrupted the child that you were being rude and I won’t take a picture.” This would have either been a non story, or it would have made the guy look like a heel. No eBay comments, please….
January 20th, 2009 at 10:59 am
I am so sick of this ‘racism’ card. Cosmic Rabbit; have you forgotten that Barack is half white as well; that he was raised by both his white mother and white grandmother. I’m assuming that if someone stepped in front of a CHILD to selfishly obtain a picture, no matter what the race, Obama would have refused him/her. It’s not a matter of race; it’s a matter of ignorance. Wait your turn; you don’t interrupt or push aside a child to get what you want; as if you’re more important.
I think you have some ingrained biases going on that you need to personally address.