Patterico's Pontifications

1/26/2015

India Appalled at Obama’s Latest Gum-Chewing Episode

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:42 pm



No class whatsoever.

More here.

88 Responses to “India Appalled at Obama’s Latest Gum-Chewing Episode”

  1. How much longer?

    Patterico (9c670f)

  2. 1
    If my math is right, 724 days.

    But, with respect, narcissist engaging in uncouth behavior is not really surprising.

    kishnevi (294553)

  3. He’s a baby.

    nk (dbc370)

  4. Everybody knows that’s Nicorette. Why doesn’t he just smoke?

    elissa (ae9e01)

  5. Elissa, I’m not so sure. Nicorette needs to be chewed a couple of times and then “parked.” Otherwise it tends to taste unpleasant or peppery. Not that I think he has ever given up smoking.

    Gazzer (e441dc)

  6. Also, most of America is also appalled.

    Gazzer (e441dc)

  7. Even when I was a two pack a day man, I could go without a nicotine fix for ten hours if I had to. He’s a self-indulgent sissy-boy.

    nk (dbc370)

  8. He’s on methadone but is still chipping.

    AZ Bob (34bb80)

  9. not all Indians were appalled. some thought it was kind of cute, or showed the regular joe aspect of an American President.

    me? i’m hoping it was nicorette.

    seeRpea (1d44c7)

  10. I wonder if he is allowed to smoke in the Oval Office. It IS a federal workplace, after all. Can he be impeached for that?

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  11. How much longer?

    Six days short of 2 years. He’s climbed to even in the polls, too. I guess to many people gas prices are everything.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  12. I think he goes on to the porch if he actually wants a cigarette, but he makes sure no photographs can be taken.

    He isn’t so keen on the nicotine gum being photographed either, but I gues he thought nobody would notice.

    If he was honest, he’d come out for e-cigarettes, which at least don’t pretend to be something to be used only temprarily to help someone in quitting. E-cigs aren’t safe and not just because of impurities that those made in China may contain, but because the effects of nicotine on the heart are more life-threatening than that of tar on the lungs.

    FDR died from smoking.

    Sammy Finkelman (e806a6)

  13. If he was honest,
    Yeah, well, if my aunt had balls she’d be my uncle.

    Gazzer (e441dc)

  14. Kevin M (25bbee) — 1/26/2015 @ 8:18 pm

    He’s climbed to even in the polls, too. I guess to many people gas prices are everything.

    It’s the poll question. It asks what kind of a job he is doing

    Present tense.

    What’s going on right now.

    Sammy Finkelman (e806a6)

  15. E-cigs arem’t harmless, but they are less harmful than regular cigarettes, and don’t bother other people.

    They are also safer than anti-depressants (which damage the heart twice as much as cigarettes) and work better too.

    Sammy Finkelman (e806a6)

  16. I think the Indians were set off by when he stuck the gum under the seat of a cherished antique

    steveg (794291)

  17. Obama has admitted in the past to being a lapsed smoker who occasionally off the wagon and uses Nicorette gum to try to stop smoking. But it seems strange that he doesn’t try a nicotine patch for public events, if only because moments like this are becoming more frequent and (presumably) embarrassing.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  18. You’ve never smoked, DRJ?

    nk (dbc370)

  19. re #17: nicotine patches are not covered by Ocare.
    re #12: FDR died from a lot of things. He was not a well man for months before his death.
    re #01: don’t look forward to his leaving office, remember when he does there is going to be Presidential Pardons for so many crooks and knaves that a fleet of USPS trucks will be needed to deliver them.

    seeRpea (1d44c7)

  20. I’ll bet Obama thinks it’s America’s fault that he’s still smoking. If we’d only be reasonable and let him be the kind of emperor he knows he was born to be, he wouldn’t feel so much annoyance, and wouldn’t be driven to smoke.

    George W. Bush is probably the most to blame, followed by the rest of the GOP, but all America — heck, the world — is surely to blame for Obama’s inability to quit smoking.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  21. No, but how did you know?

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  22. oh come on DRJ, we have seen your posts. You smoked something .

    🙂

    seeRpea (1d44c7)

  23. Maybe Obama could learn what borders are about.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_PzMSw6jZo

    AZ Bob (34bb80)

  24. Heh. I’m high on life, seeRpea.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  25. Oh guys, come on, stop being so critical.

    Those were obviously delicious cinnamon bears that Obama was fishing out of his pocket and eating during the ceremony.

    JVW (60ca93)

  26. Now that’s a link, AZ Bob.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  27. I used to be disgusted. Now I try to be amused.*

    Ag80 (eb6ffa)

  28. Smoking is a weird habit. I’ll give you an example. I stopped chain smoking, and started walking down two flights of stairs and out two doors to smoke. Well, when I tried to quit that too, I found out it was the walk outside I was looking forward to. In the middle of Chicago winter.

    I don’t downplay the addictiveness of nicotine. But I think it also strongly reinforces the complex set of behaviors involved in smoking a cigarette or chewing nicotine gum, and that set of complex behaviors, the habit, becomes ingrained and they’re part of the pleasure. Like runners and their “runner’s hight” (but that’s a guess).

    To bring it to Obama, the whole ritual from taking the gum out of his pocket, to popping it in his mouth, to chewing it, to playing with it, is as compelling if not more compelling than the nicotine craving, in my opinion.

    nk (dbc370)

  29. I’ll bet Obama thinks it’s America’s fault that he’s still smoking. If we’d only be reasonable and let him be the kind of emperor he knows he was born to be, he wouldn’t feel so much annoyance, and wouldn’t be driven to smoke.

    One of the reasons that the left hammered on the tobacco companies so hard is because it fits into their narrative that the citizen is powerless to fix their own bad habits so the government must weigh in with the all-powerful regulatory state and act in our best interests. Not that the tobacco companies weren’t led by crass liars and useless craven marketing dorks, but so is Hollywood and you don’t see the government trying to crush their influence.

    JVW (60ca93)

  30. I was focusing on the nicotine fix aspect more than the habits that accompany smoking. But I also assume he’s good at hiding his smoking in public, at least since 2007 when he started running for President. How does his public gum-smacking fit that part of the profile?

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  31. On the other hand, we know he doesn’t care about protocol. The repeated gaffes by his Administration prove that. Gum-chewing, bowing, none of it matters to him. Maybe he only avoids smoking in public because he doesn’t want to anger Michelle.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  32. People often chew gum and pop mints in an attempt to cover their smoker’s breath.

    elissa (ae9e01)

  33. I’m about to say something politically incorrect so the faint of heart need to cover their eyes. I don’t care what Obama or his family do, wear, or say anymore. If green lipstick in the White House doesn’t bother them, nothing will.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  34. Wait a minute…what’s that?

    Gum?

    AND YOU DIDN’T BRING ENOUGH FOR EVERYBODY?

    Bugg (f0dbc7)

  35. If green lipstick in the White House doesn’t bother them, nothing will.

    That’s an awfully apt epitaph for this Administration, DRJ. I think you nailed it.

    JVW (60ca93)

  36. Somewhere there is a lefty Obamabot reading this blog post and sneering, “Those wingnuts: they focus on the most insignificant things just to criticize Obama.” Yet another demonstration of how different our worldview is from theirs.

    JVW (60ca93)

  37. Is this what you have in mind DRJ?

    http://www.gocomics.com/glennmccoy/2015/01/26

    elissa (ae9e01)

  38. The Urkel Presidency.

    If only he was so well meaning and empathic as Urkel was.

    Instead we got the class jackass. The one cracking wise at
    everything the teacher said. Disrupting the learning of everyone
    in the class.

    But the girls love him.

    jakee308 (f0aa61)

  39. A lot of addictive behavior is ritual. You can actually get habituated to
    the ritual as much as the drug/action.

    This applies to ALL addictions.

    jakee308 (f0aa61)

  40. I was thinking of Glozell, elissa. That’s a very funny link.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  41. Instead we got the class jackass. The one cracking wise at
    everything the teacher said. Disrupting the learning of everyone
    in the class.

    I don’t know, jakee308: I was the class jackass and I always had a soft spot in my heart for that type of character. Obama seems more to me like the class suck-up. The kid with the great baritone voice and smooth elocution who always dressed sharply and made everyone believe that he was going places. The teachers and the other students somehow just knew that he was super smart, even if the stuff he said in class was pretty pedestrian and unnotable. He would get “A”s in class because the teachers were conned into thinking that something must be wrong with their teaching methods if this kid didn’t score well on the tests; either that or perhaps the tests were biased in some way. So the kid goes through class dragging down the achievement of the rest of the students because he is content with mediocrity and doesn’t have the courage to aspire to more and he gets everyone to settle for average. Twenty years later everyone realizes that the guy never amounted to anything and was never all that remarkable of a character to begin with, but by then it’s way too late.

    JVW (60ca93)

  42. Apparently it’s not just the Indians getting a clue: Per Richard Engel of NBC (via Ace)

    “One of the big ironies here is that President Obama, in his statement, said how close he was to King Abdullah… King Abdullah did not like President Obama. In fact, a lot of people I know that are quite close to the late King Abdullah said that the king could not stand President Obama. This close personal bond between the president and the late Saudi leader, I think, is people being polite at a time of a national funeral.”

    Our country is in the very best of hands.

    elissa (ae9e01)

  43. I’ve heard of a “gumshoe” before, but….

    Open mouth, insert gum…?

    Not the usual context for “gumshoe”…. LOLZ.

    IGotBupkis, "Si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses." (225d0d)

  44. As cruddy and trashy as I know Obama is — from his politics to his notoriously self-unaware egotism — I didn’t realize just how bad he was in terms of chomping on gum like a bratty teenager at noticeably inappropriate times. Regrettably, he is merely a reflection of the socio-cultural erosion of this society in general over the past 50-plus years. (Uh, anyone see the recent Gallup Poll on Obama?)

    There’s no turning back.

    When I read about the recent murder of a prosecutor in Argentina tied closely to that nation’s leftist president, who’s not too much more disreputable than Obama is, and also the plight of an Argentinan journalist covering the crime now having to flee his country due to a potential threat to his own life, I’m reminded of how low — very low — a society can go, and how it can end up going even lower than that.

    What’s unnerving is that the US, with its increasingly corrupt Hassan-ized/IRS-ized/Benghazi-zed hiearchy, isn’t necessarily much above and beyond a nation like Argentina. That reality should keep sane, decent and watchful Americans up late at night.

    blogs.wsj.com, November 2014: President Barack Obama has gone to some lengths to make nice with China as the Asian nation hosts the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, its most star-studded power conclave since the Olympics. But he didn’t count on the gum haters.

    That’s where Obama’s image got all gummed up. First, he didn’t take a ride in one of the official Hongqi cars that China is marketing as a luxury marque and provided especially for the dignitaries, choosing instead to hop on a U.S. State Department limousine.

    Second – even worse for some Chinese – he was chewing gum. This didn’t please many among China’s microblogging commentariat, who were closely watching the live proceedings. “This is in the American manner and humor, but in traditional Chinese culture, it is immature and not serious behavior!” one blogger thundered.

    “No wonder he doesn’t get any support!” another said.

    Washingtontimes.com, June 6, 2014: President Obama was caught on camera chewing gum during the D-Day ceremonies in France as Queen Elizabeth II was welcomed, and Twitter feeds worldwide exploded with criticism.

    “Obama and his chewing-gum. Classy” one French user tweeted sarcastically.

    “Not very elegant, the Obama attitude in the middle of the ceremony,” another user said, while yet another added, “Is there anyone who will ask Barack Obama to stop chewing on his gum like a cowboy?”

    The words “shameful” and “vulgar” were thrown around as social media networks lit up with outrage at Mr. Obama’s display. “Obama do you want a Coke too while chewing gum while the Marseillaise is being played?” one tweet fumed, in reference to the president’s lack of respect for the French National anthem

    .

    Mark (c160ec)

  45. ghetto is ghetto… that’s all he’ll ever be.

    a commenter at AoSHQ nailed it the other day:

    The “Zippy the Pinhead” presidency mixed with the “Mean Girls” presidency, covered with a satanic layer of the “Lazy Know-It-All A55hole” presidency, and of course sprinkled with a nutty “Marxist Lunatic” topping presidency.

    redc1c4 (cf3b04)

  46. seeRpea @19

    == re #12: FDR died from a lot of things. He was not a well man for months before his death.==

    Because of smoking. That’s my point.

    == re #01: don’t look forward to his leaving office, remember when he does there is going to be Presidential Pardons for so many crooks and knaves that a fleet of USPS trucks will be needed to deliver them. == Clinton did that. Obama is not from he same background.

    (1d44c7) — 1/26/2015 @ 8:57 pm

    Sammy Finkelman (e806a6)

  47. I can’t stand this guy. I am second to none when it comes to the shear magnitude of the amount of contempt I have for this preezy.

    Yet, I can’t help but notice he’s sitting next to a guy with a hat designed by Lady Gaga.

    Steve57 (a04df5)

  48. Obama. He’s freakin’ historic.

    Steve57 (a04df5)

  49. I can’t wait until I have to choose between electing another national disgrace or being called names. Last time, racist. This time, sexist.

    That’ll be, what, 2016?

    Steve57 (a04df5)

  50. I guess I can wait.

    Steve57 (a04df5)

  51. I don’t know about anyone else, but my chest swells with pride every time I see our historic first black President debase himself and disgrace the United States.

    And I was OK with George Washington’s nicorette, and all those other white President’s playing with their gum-stuffed faces. So what’s the problem, racists?

    Steve57 (a04df5)

  52. The Department of State actually employs people whose job is to inform the leadership concerning local customs and taboos, and to advise on matters of manners. If our honored President doesn’t know something about protocol, these people are supposed to inform him.

    But, as has been previously noted, the Commander-in-Chief either hasn’t been informed that chewing gum at certain occasions is considered déclassé, or he just doesn’t care. I can’t know that he has been informed, but my guess is that he just doesn’t care; it really is All About Him.

    The diplomatic Dana (f6a568)

  53. I first thought of the following as a bit snarky, but after reading some things above came to think maybe there is some truth to it.
    Remember how Obama said he was smarter than everyone else and always knew more about something than his adviser in the room did? Maybe he really thinks his opinion is more correct on protocol than his expert? “Maybe some people think that way, but they’re stupid if they do. I’ll do what I know is best.”
    IDK

    MD in Philly (f9371b)

  54. #53: “Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by stupidity.”

    of course, Obola is oversupplied with both, so it’s six/five and pick’em with him. hell, i’ve got a Persian cat that’s smarter than he is, because my cat learns from his mistakes.

    redc1c4 (cf3b04)

  55. 4 out of 5 doctors recommend American voters just face up to the fact that their president is a low-class p.o.s.

    the other doctor is stupid

    happyfeet (a037ad)

  56. Why aren’t all the people who are self-righteously screwing with people’s brunches because #BlackLivesMatter not lifting a finger to #BringOurGirlsBack?

    Steve57 (a04df5)

  57. I don’t want the Chicago contingent to get their panties in a wad or anything. I’m sure nice things happen every day in Chicago. I’m sure nice people come from Chicago and America is better off for it.

    TFG is not one of those nice people.

    http://www.hark.com/clips/sqzfdknfrt-this-town-stinks-like-a-whore-house-at-low-tide

    Almost 30 years ago Sean Connery described the fragrance somebody like Barack Obama gives a place.

    Steve57 (a04df5)

  58. I administratively separated better Sailors than Bergdahl, Red. If the Army hadn’t charged that guy with desertion I would have had to apologize to every single one of them.

    Steve57 (a04df5)

  59. i got those alora thingers I think it was Mr. mg what told us about

    mine ones are pino which they don’t have in the 16 oz bottle yet

    they’re kinda pricey so I’ll probably refill it with a way cheaper brand but it for sure keeps the whore stink down

    happyfeet (a037ad)

  60. Me, knocking on some guy’s door.

    “Hi, remember that time when you went UA for a few months and missed movement because you were having problems with your girlfriend? And you thought your command was just supposed to understand? Well, sorry, apparently you were right and we were wrong. We were supposed to understand.”

    Steve57 (a04df5)

  61. #61: LOL.

    redc1c4 (cf3b04)

  62. redc1c4, don’t laugh prematurely: Mr 57 was simply telling us what’s going to happen in the not-too-distant future.

    The Dana who can see the future (f6a568)

  63. Dana, the boat leaves tomorrow at seven. On the dot.

    If we can muster a quorum.

    Ship’s company, if you feel like it, show up.

    If not, whatevs.

    Steve57 (a04df5)

  64. Dana, I believe you can see the future.

    God help us.

    Steve57 (a04df5)

  65. i was laughing at how accurate he was…

    but then again, i’m the guy with a Retired Reserve ID card that the VA says isn’t really a veteran.

    redc1c4 (b340a6)

  66. “Don’t do stupid things” is the foundation for this administration’s foreign policy. Now all we need to do is figure out what these characters consider stupid. Sort of like the problem of figuring out what the meaning of “is” is. But in that case it was a matter of tense. It won’t be that easy with guy. The old standby “stupid is as stupid does” obviously applies, but how? Who could imagine that a guy from Harvard would need to take some lessons from Forest Gump?

    bobathome (f208b6)

  67. Red, there’s something about the symmetry of a government that denies status to veterans who have ID cards but insists on giving status to illegal aliens who don’t that I have to chew on.

    Steve57 (a04df5)

  68. Meghan’s coward daddy is over there sucking on the dead saudi royal pervert’s toes

    #theydidsomethingtohisbrain

    happyfeet (a037ad)

  69. The Bob who is at home wrote:

    “Don’t do stupid things” is the foundation for this administration’s foreign policy. Now all we need to do is figure out what these characters consider stupid.

    Easy: if it makes sense, our betters in the Obama Administration think it’s stupid. If, on the other hand, sensible people think something is stupid — for instance, releasing terrorists who want to kill Americans back into situations in which they could try to kill Americans — then the Ivy Leaguers in this Administration think that it’s an absotively, posilutely brilliant idea. We just never knew that the previous Secretary of State’s “Reset Button” actually lobotomized people.

    In his book The Best and the Brightest, David Halberstam noted that Sam Rayburn, noting all of the high-falutin’ degrees that President Kennedy’s incoming foreign policy appointees had, said that he wished that one of them had at least run for sheriff or something. And from those geniuses, Robert McNamara and the Brothers Bundy, we got our hugely successful plans for winning the Vietnam War.

    The Dana with some common sense (f6a568)

  70. Also, Dana, Obama hates America.

    Steve57 (a04df5)

  71. I’m thinking of writing a book. It will be about WWII, which just had to suck.

    I’ll call it Green Dragons and Black Cats.

    Steve57 (a04df5)

  72. WHERE ARE MY DRAGONS

    happyfeet (a037ad)

  73. That’s what I’m fixin’ to tell you, Mr. feets.

    Steve57 (a04df5)

  74. Somebody threw a war, and they threw it in the 1940s.

    And of all places, they threw it in the Solomon Islands. Which most people can’t find if they Google it. And they didn’t have Google back then, so figure the odds.

    Anyhoo, I start from there and work backward.

    Steve57 (a04df5)

  75. Is “low class” better than “no class”?
    Somehow, I doubt it.
    We will need to elect a new President that has a comprehensive Apology Tour planned.

    askeptic (efcf22)

  76. Solomon Islands are somewheres west of Utah, no?

    happyfeet (a037ad)

  77. The danger. The excitement. The romance. The syphilis. The malaria.

    Buy the book. It’ll all be in there.

    Steve57 (a04df5)

  78. i will but it has to be on kindle

    happyfeet (a037ad)

  79. Yeah, Mr. feets. Head to Park City and hang a left. Keep bearing left.

    Steve57 (a04df5)

  80. I have to get up. My dog is looking at me “that way.”

    Steve57 (a04df5)

  81. remember when he does there is going to be Presidential Pardons for so many crooks and knaves that a fleet of USPS trucks will be needed to deliver them.

    That will NOT happen.

    1) People who are pardoned cannot claim the 5th Amendment. They MUST testify. Lying at that point is not covered by the pardon.

    2) Obama cannot pardon himself, and must therefore leave fall guys. If Nixon had pardoned everyone else, he would not have got a pardon himself.

    Kevin M (56aae1)

  82. Wait didn’t Marc Rich get a pardon without being tried or convicted whilst in Switzerland?

    Gazzer (e441dc)

  83. bobathome (f208b6) — 1/27/2015 @ 8:47 am

    “Don’t do stupid things” is the foundation for this administration’s foreign policy. Now all we need to do is figure out what these characters consider stupid.

    Anything you think of first, and most uses of military force.

    Whatever Obama doesn’t want to do, he calls stupid.

    Sammy Finkelman (e806a6)

  84. They probably all think she’s a man anyway.

    Gazzer (e441dc)

  85. re #86: I agree, I think Michelle did good and she didn’t dress disrespectfully.

    seeRpea (1d44c7)


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