Audio Of Obama’s ‘Jackass’ Remark: Refreshing New Tone For The President!

TMZ has posted the audio of President Obama referring to Kanye West as a “jackass” yesterday. It’s an interesting listen for a number of reasons.

One, Obama is responding to a reporter asking him whether his girls were as “ticked off” as the reporter’s were about Taylor Swift’s treatment at the VMA’s. “I thought that was really inappropriate,” says Obama. “Does that count as the first question?” the reporter asks, suggesting they were already on the record? Obama certainly doesn’t explicitly ask to be taken off the record even after he’s made the remark, though he does allude to not wanting the remark to be blown out of proportion. So much for that. Here’s the rest of the exchange:

Obama: The young lady seems like a perfectly nice person, she’s up there getting her award. Why’s he up there?
Reporter: Why’d he do that?
Obama: He’s a jackass.
[Much hooting in the press room over this.]
Obama: Now I’m assuming all this stuff…where’s the Pool [reporter]? Come’on guys, cut the President some slack…I got a lot of other stuff on my plate. Because I remember the last time, there was the fly thing. That was the highlight.
Reporter: But that worked out well for you, you were a ninja!

Yes, yes he was. (According to everyone but PETA.) And this outburst may also work out well for the Prez. Taken in the jokey context it was obviously meant it seems like a, um, reasonable, human response. Kanye was a jackass. The President didn’t try to sugarcoat it. The President’s human! A little more of this side of Obama would be a welcome change in terms of the current health care debate. One can only hope he makes an appearance a some point on his grand tour this Sunday. You can listen to the full audio here.

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