From Politico's Playbook this morning:

[David] Maraniss’s Obama is sympathetic, and in contrast to his exotic background, he emerges as a normal, well-adjusted guy. At Occidental, ‘Barry’’s Mick Jagger impression was legendary, and as a teen at Honolulu’s Punahou School, he was known for snagging joints from his buddies’ hands and shouting ‘Intercepted!’ before taking an extra hit. Halfway through the book, Maraniss describes a day when a high-school teacher asked Obama what people should most fear. ‘Words,’ uttered the boy who would be known for his stirring speeches. ‘Words … can be weapons of destruction.’

Comments:


Mollie Hemingway, Ed.

I can't be the only person who finds this detail about our President hilar-disturbing, can I?

Palaeologus
Joined
Jul '10
Palaeologus

Which detail Mollie? That he's a jackass?

It is, after all, the party logo...

DrewInWisconsin
Joined
Aug '11
DrewInWisconsin

All that comes to mind is that Penn Jillette rant.

Also, that there's nothing particularly "normal" or "well-adjusted" about that, is there?

Edited on May 25, 2012 at 4:06pm
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.
Palaeologus: Which detail Mollie?

This morning my husband and I have been going around shouting "Intercepted!" as we steal things from our children or each other.

It's the perfect word for this presidency. Everything gets intercepted. From joint tokes to health insurance to our children's future!

Palaeologus
Joined
Jul '10
Palaeologus

Mollie Hemingway, Ed.

Palaeologus: Which detail Mollie?

This morning my husband and I have been going around shouting "Intercepted!" as we steal things from our children or each other.

It's the perfect word for this presidency. Everything gets intercepted. From joint tokes to health insurance to our children's future! · 0 minutes ago

I'm currently imagining Michelle intercepting a bacon cheeseburger and a Marlboro.

Admittedly, it would help more if she stuck to hectoring him.

Mollie Hemingway, Ed.

Oh wow. You have to see this guide to smoking pot with Barack Obama:

As a member of the Choom Gang, Barry Obama was known for starting a few pot-smoking trends. The first was called "TA," short for "total absorption." To place this in the physical and political context of another young man who would grow up to be president, TA was the antithesis of Bill Clinton's claim that as a Rhodes scholar at Oxford he smoked dope but never inhaled.

When you were with Barry and his pals, if you exhaled precious pakalolo (Hawaiian slang for marijuana, meaning "numbing tobacco") instead of absorbing it fully into your lungs, you were assessed a penalty and your turn was skipped the next time the joint came around. "Wasting good bud smoke was not tolerated," explained one member of the Choom Gang, Tom Topolinski, the Chinese-looking kid with a Polish name who answered to Topo.

and so on and so forth.

Mollie Hemingway, Ed.

I sense the "intercepted" theme would make for a great ad against Obama. Begin with this tale from the biography. Then have Obama intercepting all these liberties and goods that we normally associate with being American.

It could be called "Bogarting Your Freedom" or something.

Franco
Joined
Sep '10
Franco

"Wasting good bud smoke was not tolerated," explained one member of the Choom Gang... 

Someone should tell Barack to think of taxpayer dollars as "good bud" and apply the Choom Gang philosophy. You just have to speak these kids lingo and they'll get it.

Pseudodionysius
Joined
Sep '10
Pseudodionysius

Mollie Hemingway, Ed.: I sense the "intercepted" theme would make for a great ad against Obama. Begin with this tale from the biography. Then have Obama intercepting all these liberties and goods that we normally associate with being American.

It could be called "Bogarting Your Freedom" or something. · 1 hour ago

That would make Julia the Girl, Intercepted.

Edward Smith
Joined
May '12
Edward Smith

That Obama fell in with Bill Ayres seems perfectly natural now.

And that he did nothing to help Ayres when the Kennedy's finally got their revenge (the Kennedy's really are like the American version of the Plantagenets) on Ayres by denying him the one last honor he wanted, that also makes sense.

That said, I do not see the Obamas being players into the third, or even second generation.

It's too bad Obama is too much of a hypocrite to be the ex-President who has his picture taken with a pair porn stars like Bill Clinton. 

I cannot say I like Bill Clinton, but he is charming and has been very lucky, known what to do with that charm and luck, and he does have cojones.

Clinton may even be smart enough to know he's no Kennedy, and play the hand he's been dealt.

Pseudodionysius
Joined
Sep '10
Pseudodionysius

Pseudodionysius

Mollie Hemingway, Ed.: I sense the "intercepted" theme would make for a great ad against Obama. Begin with this tale from the biography. Then have Obama intercepting all these liberties and goods that we normally associate with being American.

It could be called "Bogarting Your Freedom" or something. · 1 hour ago

That would make Julia the Girl, Intercepted.· 6 hours ago

Or would that be Girl, Contracepted?

(I can already hear the groaning from some of our members)

DrewInWisconsin
Joined
Aug '11
DrewInWisconsin
Intercepted

. .

Grendel
Joined
Apr '11
Grendel

Just today I was reminded--never mind how--that Dave Guard and Bob Shane, founding members of the revolutionary Kingston Trio, also went to Honolulu’s Punahou School, where they learned to play ukelele in the compulsory music classes, whence they taught themselves to play guitar.

It would be interesting to ask Obama whether he learned to play ukelele, since:

  1. It would be a signal achievement in a life otherwise devoid of accomplishment .
  2. His ukelele might be related to the registrar, "U. K. Lelei", who signed his official White House birth certificate

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