Obama, our new Imperial President, won’t eat unless he has his food taster
Bookworm on Mar 16 2013 at 2:51 pm | Filed under: Uncategorized
Sometimes a story comes along that perfectly encapsulates a specific narrative. Such is the case with the story of Obama refusing to share food with Senate Republicans because he hadn’t brought his food taster with him. It might be entirely reasonable for a legitimate target of assassination attempts to have a food taster, but it’s somehow very, very un-American. That’s why this story, which I originally wrote for Mr. Conservative, has been enthusiastically received.
Those who have suspected that Barack Obama sees himself more in the role of a King than a President will not be surprised to learn that his most Serene Highness President-King Obama will not eat food unless he has a taster. When the President attended a lunch meeting with Senate Republicans on Capitol Hill, despite the healthy and delicious lobster salad placed before him, the absence of “a taster” meant that the president refused to eat a single bite.
The Daily Caller reports that Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins was responsible for the lobster dish, and was disappointed that Obama refused to eat it:
“University of Maine recipe for healthy lobster salad — I pointed that out to the president in keeping with the first lady’s initiatives and Fox Family Potato Chips made in Aroostook County where I’m from and wild blueberry pie full of anti-oxidants, see this was a healthy lunch as well. We did have a little ice cream on the pie too, also made in Maine, Gifford’s Ice Cream. So in all seriousness this was well received,” Collins told reporters on Thursday after the meeting at the Capitol.
“Unfortunately, you know, the president can’t,” said Collins when asked if Obama ate at the lunch meeting.
“He looked longingly at it,” Collins continued. “He honestly did look longingly at it, but apparently he has to have essentially a taster, and I pointed out to him that we were all tasters for him, that if the food had been poisoned all of us would have keeled over so, but he did look longingly at it and he remarked that we have far better food than the Democrats do, and I said that was because I was hosting.”
Since at least 2009, the Secret Service has refused to confirm or deny whether the president travels with a taster. That’s unsurprising. First, the Secret Service shouldn’t give away its trade secrets. Second, nothing works faster to make any leader look like a hated dictator than for word to get out that he’s afraid to eat the food served to him in his own country.
With any other president, people would probably have responded to the news about a taster by saying “Well, we have to protect our president.” With Obama, though, things are different.
This is the man who golfs with the stars, takes lavish taxpayer-funded vacations, throws blow-out celebrity parties at “the People’s White House” (although he doesn’t invite the people), and keeps his office a comfy 75 degrees while telling Americans to avoid heating and A/C in their own homes. Hearing that he won’t touch American food, in an American setting, without having an employee taste it first just enhances the image of him as an out-of-touch wannabe dictator.
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17 Responses to “Obama, our new Imperial President, won’t eat unless he has his food taster”
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Well, the really insulting aspect of this, is that he was at a meeting of Senate Republicans. It was presumeably a closed luncheon, no outsiders, no public … and he refused to eat a bite because … what, the GOP senators might have put something in his food? That was a deliberate slap – the assumption that he might be poisoned at a private Hill luncheon.
As if there aren’t enough pictures of him chowing down in public, too.
We’re supposed to believe that this guy is blissfully unfettered by the Constitution, federal law, tradition, and decency, but some Secret Service guy says, “Sit… Stay… Don’t eat yet… Good boy…” and he obediently sits there while salivating, like Pavlov’s best friend?
If that’s true, this guy is even more of an odd duck than we could possibly imagine.
If it’s not, we’ve got Howard Hughes in the White House.
Either way, this is really not good.
I really believe it is a religious issue. Are Muslims allowed to eat lobster. I have heard they are not. After I asked this question on another blog someone looked it up. They said it is not allowed.
Shortly after D-Day, Winston Churchill wanted to visit the troops in Normandy. He would have done it, too….but the King said that if Winston went, he was going too.
So, a Prime Minister and an actual monarch were willing to face enemy fire (probably not in rifle fire range, but likely exposed to long-range artillery and possibly bombing)…and we have a President who is not willing to eat without his official taster.
Ruth H, as best as I can tell, Muslims may eat shellfish. This wasn’t a dietary issue, it was an imperial issue. Alternatively, he may just not like lobster and was to embarrassed to admit it. Or he may be allergic and, again, was too embarrassed to admit that. One would think, though, that if either w the case, the White House would have sent word to those sponsoring the meal to avoid those foods. And if it’s an allergy, no taster in the world could figure out if a bad actor had slipped a small amount of whatever into food. There was just a sad story today about a man who died from a minute amount of peanut oil. No taster could detect that.
So, let’s see. This wasn’t food off some food cart on a NYC street. This was food prepared for members of the Senate and others, served in areas controlled and secured for high members of the US Congress. Oh, and did we skip the part that it was within walking distance from the White House? Was the taster on vacation or something?
Did the president’s staff not comprehend that food might be served at a luncheon?
Or does Obama have some picky eating habits, so picky that reporting his not eating as being due to the absence of a taster rather than he doesn’t like lobster? BTW, shouldn’t the Secret Service cross train their people so another agent can step in to the tasting breach in an emergency? Or perhaps someone on Obama’s staff might be able to take a nibble?
Let’s assume he does have a taster whom he didn’t bring with him. The next question is ‘Well, why not?’
He goes to meal with people with absolutely no intention of breaking bread with them? It’s as if he saying ‘You don’t actually expect me to EAT with these people, do you? No, I’ll just hang out and be above it all while you schlubs chow down.’
Maybe the underlying message was crystal clear to Collins and that’s why she ever so politely and ‘accidentally’ ratted him out to the press.
Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush, and Bill Clinton also had food tasters. Here’s an article in The Dispatch of Lexington, NC, Jan 26, 1988 about Reagan’s taster.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1734&dat=19880126&id=XeobAAAAIBAJ&sjid=71EEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6835,2257614
What! Michele didn’t pack him a brown-bag lunch.
Indigo Red: Thanks for the link. Clinton was a fast-food junkie. The Secret Service must have put on quite a few pounds.
[...] Bookworm Room has the Imperial President and food tasters [...]
I believe you’re focusing on the wrong side of the story here. The truth is that his food taster is presently ill from food poisoning. I also heard that it is his 9th food taster this year.
Hmmm where did they hide the taster at all of those Five Guys burger joints?
I get having a taster there are more dangerous things than bullets and easier to conceal in plain sight by a rogue waiter but as noted above why not bring them to a lunch? Did they just succumb to poised pancakes at an earlier event and there was not time to replace them? Did they just not show up and will they be fired or get a bonus for giving cover in ‘plausible deniablility’?
Not to get too far off topic, but I will never forget Phil Hartman’s skit on “Saturday Night Live” where he played Bill Clinton stopping at a McDonald’s near the White House in mid-jog. (I think it was based on a true event.) He proceeds to cadge tastes of everybody’s orders and gleefully wolf down almost every morsel in sight.
Hartman always did a mighty good impression of Clinton, made stronger by the fact that he really did channel a lot of things about Bill, such as his big appetites, that we already sensed. Now, contrast what would have been Bill’s ebullience at an all-you-can-eat lobster fest with Barry’s wimpy disdain. Sheesh.
Speaking of whether Nancy Boy of the United States is a Muslim, nah. Barry worships himself. Allah comes in a distant second.
Indigo, the POTUS has had a food taster as part of the security detail for decades whether performed by USSS or military personnel. However, what is revealing is how busy the food taster has been with this administration because Obama and his family have eaten out publicly more often than any previous president. He also has had more guest celebrity chefs cook meals for his family as if the staff W.H. chefs are not qualified. Chef Rick Bayless revealed the food taster’s presence via Twitter when he was cooking at a state dinner in 2009 which was the last time personal tweets from the W.H. kitchen occurred. Oh, lest we forget. Who else has moved into the W.H. with a personal chef in tow? And our children have their B.M.I. measured in public schools and receive a personal letter if outside the HHS standards?
Also…just the other day, the Pope left his security perimeter to mingle with the crowd.
Actually the food taster is to make sure that the food is cut into small enough bites. Just as he likes it.
The rulers deserve better than all you peasants combined. If one is unsatisfied with this…