Obama, our new Imperial President, won’t eat unless he has his food taster

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.