Rod Blagojevich: “I’m Blacker than Barack Obama”

by Rachel Sklar | 6:31 am, January 11th, 2010

» 6 comments

Yes, he really said that. In context, too. When will this idiot go away?

Not this month, because Rod Blagojavich is featured in yet another “Would you believe this guy?” “Did he really say that?” interview, this time in Esquire‘s February 2010 “People Who Matter” issue.

Here’s the money quote:

This guy, he was catapulted in on hope and change, what we hope the guy is. What the fuck? Everything he’s saying’s on the teleprompter. I’m blacker than Barack Obama. I shined shoes. I grew up in a five-room apartment. My father had a little laundromat in a black community not far from where we lived. I saw it all growing up.”

In this particular interview, Blago was also Galileo; in the past he has been, in no particular order, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Jr., Mahatma Gandhi Winston Churchill, Richard Nixon, King Lear and Martha Stewart. So — let’s put this in context!

Ha, ha. The only context is that Blago is an attention-seeking probably-crook, good quote though he may give and charming though he may be. As even author Scott Raab admits, Blago has pulled this schtick on The View and with Jimmy Kimmel and Jon Stewart (see here)

All this said — of course the article is entertaining. It even has a little pathos (it’s just such a fall, and so boneheadedly). And his chutzpah really is a marvel, saying stuff like “They stole me away from the people of Illinois” and comparing himself to Galileo because of his, Blagojevich’s, “vision and rightness.”

Oh, also, the AP asked the White House for comment on Blago’s latest (how did they phrase that? And why is Obama’s degree of blackness such an issue these days?)

Now please enjoy this video clip of Blago singing “Treat Me Nice” just like Elvis on stage with a Fabio impersonator.

The Notorious Blago [Esquire]
Blago on the Daily Show: Great Hair, Zero Credibility [Mediaite]
Blagojevich compares himself to MLK, Mandela, and Gandhi [ThinkProgress]

Photo for Esquire by Andrew Hetherington

sarainitaly

i don’t want him to go away – he is the gift that keeps on giving.haha

The thing that befuddles is why he was endorsed by obama, and other dems, when he is so obviously off his rocker, and apparently everyone knew he was corrupt…. So why did they always endorse him? And why did Jesse Jackson Jr., Obama’s campaign advisor, try to play ball with him. Seems to me there were lots of corrupt people around Blago, and he is the fall guy. So, in a sense, I can understand why he is so pissed. They were all riding dirty, and then they threw him under the bus once he got caught.
ChrisNH

I’ll bet this idiot rodeo clown saw the ‘balloon-boy’ incident and wailed, ‘That shoulda been ME doing that!’
sarainitaly

doesn’t he walk around with his own ballon on his head?
Ben Linus

Come on, Rachel. You know this isn’t a story and there is nothing wrong with what he said — he’s a Democrat. He can say stuff like this all day long, just like Reid.
TfT

Go Blago — he is just telling it like it is. It is perfectly acceptable by the standard set by Sharpton and the CBC. I just don’t quite get why Sharpton is upset with Bill Clinton’s comment “a few years ago this guy would have been getting us coffee.”
JunkJunk

…because I wasn’t black until I shined my first shoes…

/snark

Now that (fake) picture of Obama shining Palin’s shoes makes sense now – it was obviously created by Blago!