WJXT’s Tom Wills does not want to become the next Brad Watson. After Watson, reporter at WFAA in Dallas, asked President Obama some tough questions in an interview last year, the White House warned reporters not to do that.
Lesson learned, says Tom Wills, who tossed President Obama a puffball so big it could blot out the sun.
“Mr. President, we’ve heard you sing, we’ve seen you do stand up at the correspondents dinner.” Tom Wills of WJXT in Jacksonville, Fla. stated.
“I was just wondering if you would give any thought to being on ‘American Idol’ or ‘America’s Got Talent’?” he asked. “You’d be a big hit Mr. President.”
“My wife and my daughters find me embarrassing enough when I start performing,” Obama grinned. “They certainly don’t want a large national audience seeing me in those kinds of situations. So I’m going to try to keep my singing to the shower most of the time.”
Cringe-inducing video at the link.
Actually, this may have been a back-handed compliment.
“Mr President, the only skills you seem to have are in the entertainment field. After you are deservedly evicted from power, perhaps you should start doing the only constructive thing you are capable of, and join the ranks of Eminem, 50 cent, and Roseanne Barr.”
And to that, I add a fervent Amen – the sooner the better.
Yeah, it can be taken that way. His question does make for a really sly, subtle put-down. The trouble is with modern journalists, most are so star-struck and drunk on Obama Kool-Aid, they would ask such a question with the utmost sincerity. But this fellow, being a local guy, may not be as daft as the national press corpse, er – corps.
Personally, if I were giving an important presentation and somebody asked me a question like that, I’d wonder who let a clown like that in the room. But Obama is probably so much of an egotist, he soaks up compliments of any kind like a sponge soaks up water.
“You be good at singin’”
“You be good at jokin’”
“You suck at presidentin’”
I thought he already won American Idol. Isn’t that how he became President in the first place?
“Local TV Reporter Tells Obama He Would be a ‘Big Hit’ on American Idol”
Oh? They have a category for “most glib serial liar?”
This had to be the most sly insult I have ever seen. Translated:
“Mr. President, after you are done holding the job of the highest office in the country, do you think you could go on TV and compete against a bunch of low-talent wannabes… you know, other people like you? Don’t worry, I am sure you’ll do fine.”
This reporter has game. Diplomatic corps material, there. He insulted Obama, while seeming to flatter him, without Obama knowing he’d been insulted. Heads of States of other countries, when they hear this, will just guffaw.
It was wicked. Deliciously wicked. And completely deniable. Amazing.
Goodnight, Mr. President, and thunk you.
If the reporter were from a known conservative media outlet, wouldn’t his question have been deemed racist? After all, aren’t the stereotypical vocational choices available to black men in America: a ‘gangsta’, a player (football or basketball), or an entertainer?