Obama quip stuns Citizen of the West banquet crowd

www.rockymountainnews.com ^ | 1/17/08 | John C. Ensslin

[paltz]

Greeley businessman apologized Wednesday after a joke about Illinois Sen. Barack Obama fell flat during the National Western Stock Show's annual Citizen of the West banquet.

William R. Farr was pretending to read telegrams congratulating this year's award recipient, University of Colorado President Hank Brown, when he pulled out a piece of paper and said, "I have a telegram from the White House."

[gridlock]

The page isn’t loading for me. Was it a Lee Trevino kind of thing?

[Jedidah]

We’ve just become too, too thin-skinned, always looking for a “gotcha” moment. This is becoming an increasingly ugly society.

[eureka!]

Don’t know. Drudge has it up and it is probably getting hammered. Eventually, someone will post it here...

[pieceofthepuzzle]

He said that if Obama was elected they could no longer call it the ‘White House’. Big deal. We are so over the top PC it’s pitiful. It’s not funny, but it’s not a jaw dropping faux pas either.

[yldstrk]

What flippin’ moron to say a dam fool thing like that.

[TexasRepublic]

"I have a telegram from the White House." Then he added, "They're going to have to change the name of that building if Obama's elected."

Oh, the horror of it all, such un-PC language! And I suppose they'll be serving fried chicken and watermelons to visiting heads of state.

[Red in Blue PA]

It’s a stupid thing to say. Period.

If the same thing was said if Condoleeze Rice was running, my guess is that your reaction would be quite different.

[Rappini]

I think we should all lighten up, just a tad.

[Sloth]

Amazingly stupid.

[daviscupper]

The sin here is not that somebody is racially insensitive. The social faux pas is that the joke is lame. It is stupid beyond belief. This a joke for kindergarten or first-grade. Really, really stupid. What an A-H.

I would have laughed at the sheer idiocy of the joke. Of course we should not expect too much from a DemocRAT master of ceremonies or whatever he was trying to be. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Too bad we cannot tie it in with Clinton.

[Greg F]

Obama won’t repaint the White House to another color. Sheesh. Can’t see a “Lavender House” or “Teal House” . . . just too bold a statement.

[Gulf War One]

Remember “loose shoes, tight *****, and a warm place to ****”?

That one got the Secretary of Ag fired.

[tennmountainman]

I’ve tried to load the page for a day off and on and it never loads.

[OB1kNOb]

William R. Farr, here’s your sign.

[maggief]

[Constitution Day]

Good grief! What an IDIOT.

[Rb ver. 2.0]

It’s here in the Denver Post: http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_7992134 Speaker inserts foot at tribute.

[Lorianne]

It’s a really lame joke, notwithstanding any racial insensitivity. I’d be embarrassed about telling such a lame joke.

[Walrus]

The mad scramble to the moral high ground is underway. Let’s see who is the first to employ the nuclear weapon of disapproving words -— “horrific”.