November 29, 2013

Michelle, Malia, and Sasha "have made a lot of sacrifices on behalf of my cockamamie ideas, the running for office and things."

Said Barack Obama (talking about staying in Washington after his term in office, especially given Sasha's interest in completing high school at Sidwell Friends).

44 comments:

Rob said...

Barbara Walters asked, "Do you think the First Lady might have made a better President than you?" One thing's sure: Any of Walters' ex-husbands would have made a better interviewer than she.

Roughcoat said...

Hey, come on. "If you could be a twee [sic], what kind of twee would you be?"

Pure interviewing gold.

art.the.nerd said...

> given Sasha's interest in completely high school at Sidwell Friends

Does this mean that everyone at Sidwell smokes dope?

Ann Althouse said...

Barbara Walters is a great interviewer. It's you job to figure out why.

(Great because of who she gets and what she's gotten out of it. There may be fluff in there, but the fluff could be what disarms and lubricates.)

Ann Althouse said...

"Does this mean that everyone at Sidwell smokes dope?"

LOL.

Corrected.

Roughcoat said...

Hey, come on. "If you could be a twee [sic], what kind of twee would you be?"

Pure interviewing gold.

Roughcoat said...

The idea that Barbara Walters is disarming and lubricating her interviews is putting strange pictures in my head.

Not altogether sure that I dislike them ...

Roughcoat said...

Whoops: "interviewees."

Ctmom4 said...

" Cockamamie ideas". One of those gaffs where a politician accidentally tells the truth.

George M. Spencer said...

I like the "...and things" part of the quote.

Ya know, stuff.

traditionalguy said...

Obama showed humility, his kids humanize him.

I nominate Obama for an Oscar, because he is actually the most arrogant man alive. Great acting job.

JRoberts said...

Professor, I think you need to create a new tag: "Obama the victim"

lemondog said...

Oy, what is he campaigning for now?

Original Mike said...

"Michelle, Malia, and Sasha 'have made a lot of sacrifices ...'"

Maybe if Dad played a little less golf ...

The Godfather said...

Sidwell is a good school. Or at least it was 20+ years ago when I was interested in such things. But it is an expensive private school (with some generous scholarships, I'm sure). Most families that live in Washington, DC can't imagine sending their kids there. They are stuck with the public schools. If the Obamas really believed their own BS, they'd have sent Sasha and Malia to public school.

[You can laugh now.]

somefeller said...

If he stays in DC, it'll be kind of like former Pope Benedict remaining in an apartment at the Vatican. Except more people might ask Obama what he thinks of things.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Is there anyone who doesn't already know what Obama thinks?

Cedarford said...

What a surprise!!! Obama want's to stay in the Imperial City where he is feted like a king when he leaves office. And using he "doesn't want to disappoint the children" (also feted as princesses along with the ever-sacrificing Moochelle, the Queen Mother).

Why would that be? So Mooch can make 6 million as a lobbyist while Barry plays golf and tosses clients her way and does a little book writing on his Greatness in office?
Or would he just settle in because he will need suitable lodging for when his worshippers demand the brightest con law professor in history get his supreme court spot??

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

Ann,

There may be fluff in there, but the fluff could be what disarms and lubricates.

Ummm ... lubricating fluff?

cf said...

Say, Whatever happened to the $3.5 gazillion Hawaiian home Valerie J. was preparing back when, you know, they weren't so sure the voter suppression tactics were actually going to come through?

Sorry we didn't make that work out, and Sasha could have had a perfectly-timed fresh start, oh and we would have, too! Ah, to dream.

Meade said...

“Cause […], you know, obviously they […] made a lot of sacrifices on behalf of my cockamamie ideas, […]”

Oh come on. It's not like you promised them "if you like your high school, you will be able to keep your high school. Period." Did you?

Joe Schmoe said...

Staying in DC represents his best chance to remain relevant.

avwh said...

NOW he tells us his ideas are "cockamamie".

Luckily, his disastrous Obamacare also reminds millions every day that his ideas stink - since he was too arrogant & had too much hubris to accept the delay Rs wanted.

PB said...

GW Bush felt that it's not a good thing for a president to criticize his successor. Obama's going to hang around Washington and never. shut. up.

ddh said...


"Michelle, Malia, and Sasha "have made a lot of sacrifices on behalf of my cockamamie ideas, the running for office and things."

I think we all are making a lot of sacrifices on behalf of his cockamamie ideas, the running for office and things.

pm317 said...

Where will he go? To Hawaii, away from all the action.. or the swamp, Chicago? If left up to him he will want his library right there on the mall.

CWJ said...

He has no home. He has no oxen and plow to which he might return. He's no Cincinnatus, that's for sure.

CWJ said...

C4 said,

"Why would that be? So Mooch can make 6 million as a lobbyist while Barry plays golf and tosses clients her way and does a little book writing on his Greatness in office?"

You know, there may be some truth to this. I've always assumed that Obama would become a political irrelevancy after his terms. I'm sure he's too lazy to do actual work. But his wife is another matter. I could easily see her working K street with people using BHO as the access point.

My only quibble is the idea that BHO would do any actual writing himself.



Gahrie said...

This is his first step towards his "at this time of crisis it is to dangerous to change horses in midstream " speech.

MadisonMan said...

I'm generally not very sympathetic when very rich people make decisions that make their children pout.

Illuninati said...

"“‘Cause she’s, you know, obviously they–and Michelle–have made a lot of sacrifices on behalf of my cockamamie ideas, the running for office and things,” Obama joked."

Living in a great big house with lots of servants, hobnobbing with celebrities, taking million dollar vacations around the World, and attending an expensive private school with a limousine to take you to and from school are indeed heavy burdens for anyone to bear. Poor little dears who care so much for the people. Only saints, who have already sacrificed so much for the good of the common people, would generously submit to an extended stay in Washington to attend that school. Life is just so unfair and difficult for America's heroes but the Obamas seem up to the task.

David said...

Name another president who stayed in Washington at the end of his term. (Being buried there does not count.) Other presidents went home.

As an adult, Obama has never had a home, just a series of way stations.

He has nowhere to go home to. Luckily he has the girls, who maybe are not so rootless.

Jason said...

I'm from Kailua, Hawaii. It's my hometown. I love Kailua.

I hope Obama stays the hell away from it.

Seriously.

Jason said...

I'm from Kailua, Hawaii. It's my hometown. I love Kailua.

I hope Obama stays the hell away from it.

Seriously.

285exp said...

Join the crowd ladies, join the crowd.

Unknown said...

The only times I have any positive feelings toward Obama are when he is relating to his daughters. The family dynamic seems genuine.

I am nauseated imagining Obama's post-presidential period. As much as I want him out of office I picture him as the most graceless former president ever. I hope I am wrong.

George M. Spencer said...

I predict they'll get divorced.

Michelle will run for Senate from Illinois. Serve for 30 years. Maybe get on the ticket as VP someday. Maybe become president. She'll be mellower at 65. Still, she won't take no shit from the Chinese, for sure.

Barack will get a little place in DC until the child finishes high school. Then he'll hike the Hindu Kush to find himself and then do the Gomer Pyle thing on Maui. Make speeches other people write for him. Oversee the ghostwriting of more books. Get high. Golf. Sunbathe. He'll look GQ great catching Lakers games courtside. Years will pass. He'll quietly spend more and more time in Kenya or Indonesia. In his elder years, he'll return to his childhood faith, becoming a devout Muslim living in hermitic seclusion in Taif, Saudi Arabia, and a good husband to three wives.

George M. Spencer said...

Make that young wives. Young, beautiful Saudis—Maha, Mona, and Maysa.

Lnelson said...

St George hits it outa the park.

Stick said...

I said at the first inauguration, & still believe it. He will be the first President to leave office as a billionaire. Believe it.

lemondog said...

Living in a great big house with lots of servants, hobnobbing with celebrities, taking million dollar vacations around the World,...

And I was ready to start The Obamacare Fund..... :-O

cubanbob said...

As much as I can't stand him I don't see why this is a big deal. He wants to have his kids finish school in the school they are presently attending. Why is this an issue? Is he a bit of a hypocrite regarding his daughters education? Yes. What else is new? Would anyone think higher of him if he sent his daughters to a crappy DC public school? That he would sacrifice his kids to make some sort of political point? So he will stick around DC for a few years but at 12.01 pm on 01/20/17 he becomes an ex-president and his influence is pretty much zero especially after the country has tired of him after eight years.

Gahrie said...

Name another president who stayed in Washington at the end of his term.

President Taft stayed around as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court after being president.

President Andrew Johnson served in the Senate after serving as president.

President John Quincy Adams became a member of the House of Representatives after his term as president ended.

President Obama could probably get re-elected to the Senate from Illinois or Hawaii.

George M. Spencer said...

Of course, there is an alternate version of future history. Obama being the master of miscalculation that he is and our foreign enemies having now taken his measure, someone makes a move, our boy mis-responds, and flash. Instamatic.

"The whole country was lighted by a searing light with the intensity many times that of the midday sun. It was golden, purple, violet, gray , and blue. It lighted every peak, crevasse and ridge of the nearby mountain range with a clarity and beauty that cannot be described...It was that beauty the great poets dream about but describe most poorly and inadequately. Thirty seconds after, the explosion came first, the air blast pressing hard against the people and things, to be followed almost immediately by the strong, sustained, awesome roar which warned of doomsday and made us feel that we puny things were blasphemous to dare tamper with the forces heretofore reserved to the Almighty."

Brig. Gen. Thomas Farrell, New Mexico, July 1945

Unlike most mortals, Obama would probably find that boring, if only briefly.

"The longer the bomb is around without anything happening, the better the job that people do in psychologically denying its existence. It has become as abstract as the fact that we are all going to die someday, which we usually do an excellent job of denying. For this reason, most people have very little interest in nuclear war. It has become even less interesting as a problem than, say, city government, and the longer a nuclear event is postponed, the greater becomes the illusion that we are constantly building up security, like interest at the bank. As time goes on, the danger increases, I believe, because the thing becomes more and more remote in people’s minds."

Stanley Kubrick, 1965

Obama, master of psychological denial.