President Obama: He's Just Like Us!

Dinner with the president costs about the same as a decent cup of coffee, or at least it did for four presidential campaign donors last month. In September, President Obama's reelection campaign offered donors who gave $5 or more the chance to have dinner with the president. Later, they lowered the minimum donation to just $3.

At the end of October, four lucky winners sat down for dinner with a sleepy-looking president Obama, who told his guests that "it gives me a lot of energy to have dinner with you guys. This is as good as it gets." Here's what they got for their donations:

Look exciting? You can still donate for a chance to win in the next round of Dinner With Barack. 

Comments

[Joe M]

So what beers did they drink?

[Ice Cream Bunny]

He's Just Like Us!

You. Take. That. Back.

[tarran]

Pabst Blue Ribbon, I believe.

[Nephilium]

So they're white trash, and they're in trouble?

[Colonel_Angus]

We are all in trouble. Pabst isn't going to cut it.

[Kallipygian Kristen]

White trash drinking PBR? No fucking way - that shit is for hipsters.

[Citizen Nothing]

My grandpa drank PBR. A lot of PBR. He died about the same time they closed the Milwaukee brewery, and I don't think that's a coincidence.
So when I order a Pabst, I'm simply honoring my heritage.

[cynical]

Yeah, maybe he wore a porkpie hat too, but that doesn't make hipsters any less terrible. IT'S A CULTURE, NOT A COSTUME.

[girlgenius]

Knowing Nanny Obama, it was probably Rolling Rock Near-Beer.

[Episiarch]

Why does the idea of watching this fill me with a boredom so profound that it scares me? I feel like it might stop my heart.

[Aresen]

How much do I have to donate NOT to have "Dinner with Andre Barry"?

[yonemoto]

clearly selected. This is almost as bad as potemkin villages.

[Colonel_Angus]

Based on the ratios of donors, the mathematical probability should have been equal parts SEIU, ACORN, and dead people.

[Pro Libertate]

You know, I'm sitting here, contemplating the basis for allowing the political class to rule over every aspect of our lives, and I simply don't get it. They aren't smarter than me. They don't have a thousandth of the integrity that I have. They don't make better decisions than I do.

So why should we give them this kind of power?

[Spencer]

Life is hard and they really want to help you out. Thinking is hard.

[EDG reppin' LBC]

So why should we give them this kind of power?

Because the alternative is anarchy!!! Why don't you move to Somalia, and see how you like that system, bub!!!

[wareagle]

it's always "love it or Somalia" with you folks. And the alternative is NOT anarchy. The alternative is spelled out in this short doc called the Constitution. Please show the sections that say imperial DC should have dominion over every aspect of our lives.

[wylie]

*donates some batteries for wareagle's sarcasmometer*

[Hank]

Every day I'm more convinced that wareagle is my dad.

[Nipplemancer]

I'm sorry.

[Citizen Nothing]

wareagle is why everything in an editorial cartoon must be labeled.

[Ice Nine]

And that fucking name is confusing to read, isn't it? He needs to hyphenate it. Not that I really know what a ware-agle is, but still...

[Gojira]

It's a college football thing.

But fuck him; I support Arkansas in the west and Georgia in the east. Both Bama and Auburn can suck it.

[wareagle]

come by the state sometime...we'll show you the shiny crystal trophies.

In the meantime, I'll sharpen my sarcasm detector.

[Gojira]

*sigh* I just caught your joke, Ice Nine. Ignore my idiot response, pls.

I do give Auburn props for hosting the LVMI.

[Nipplemancer]

I thought labels made everything more funny.

[Pro Libertate]

Not my dad. My dad didn't go to Auburn.

[Pro Libertate]

I have a song for you.

[Name Nomad]

Because the only people willing to do what it takes to get that job (non-stop campaigning, constant travel, endless lying, etc.) are exactly that class of people.

[Name Nomad]

I mis-parsed that as "why should they be elected." As to why we should give them power, they already have it. Rolling it back doesn't seem like it's going to happen any time soon.

[Pro Libertate]

I say this with all sincerity and not as a joke at all: We're elevating people who are, in essence, used car salesmen to office.

[T]

Based on the one used car salesman I know personally, I'd say you're right.

[Lith Ping]

The one UCS I know is smart amd has a lot of integrity--so he'll never run for office.

(I sure hope the 3rd party-filtering that has made my life hell for the last week is looking the other way right about . . . NOW!)

[SFC B]

Used car salesmen at least have some fear of losing their job, and are actually involved in a mutual exchange.

We are elevating people to office who are, in essence, a sociapathic trust-fund baby with HIV who spreads it to every person they can.

[Aresen]

On the right you get used car salesmen and lawyers.

On the left you get union activists and lawyers.

[Lord Humungus]

it's lawyers all the way down.

[cynical]

Which is why we should just draw electors and representatives out a pool of all voters like we do for jury duty.

[Joe M]

Because fuck you.

[Spencer]

^^this^^

[rather]

you are funny!

[rather]

"They don't have a thousandth of the integrity that I have."

[Anonymous Coward]

So why should we give them this kind of power?

Because they want it. And they have the proper credentials (Ivy Leaguers), the proper pedigree (Kennedy, Bush, Carnahan, Pelosi, Daley, [insert your favorite political dynasty here]), or the proper funding (if advertising didn't work, nobody would do it).

[Spencer]

Ok REASON,

How about you get volunteers for you to donate on behalf of for this sweepstakes. We can give a million for skewing the odds in our favor. Then we will ask him about the patriot act, government spending, whitehouse "report your neighbor" websites, the cult of personality, the bailouts, etc.

Sounds like a great idea to me. You can give him $3 in my name for that chance.

[Poet Laureate sloopyinca]

Do you believe for a second that these people weren't carefully selected for their slobbering dedication to Obama?

C'mon, man.

[Spencer]

no, no i don't. But what a reason expose that would make! "We made it statistically impossible that one of our readers wouldn't be chosen, but none were."

[Mo]

I don't think reason has that many readers. Also, for it to be statistically impossible, rather than improbable, reason readers would have to be all of the sweepstakes entrants save three.

[Spencer]

more "the case for me"-

I'm a librarian- that's a profession that's about 11-1 dem to anything else. That's almost as good as a teacher!

I have a name that is so bland and common (in real life) that there's no way they could accurately vet me.

I'm a white dude- which seems to be what he's aiming at these days.

Anything else I need on a CV to push me through?

[Poet Laureate sloopyinca]

Are you NutraSweet's intern?

And if so, does CV stand for "cock-vacuum?"

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Anything else I need on a CV to push me through?

Have you ever been a community organizer? Have you ever been the preacher of a church that delivered racist sermons? Are you in a union? Have you ever been on the board of a "green" company? Did you go to Harvard?

[wareagle]

I can get the same bullshit for free at any faculty lounge.

[Pro Libertate]

I went to a White House staff party in 1995. I was wondering what I'd actually talk to the president about. I think I'd settled on SEC basketball (Arkansas had just won the title, I think), but then I decided to leave to make sure I wasn't late for a date with a Ukrainian law student. So I ditched the president for a girl. I somehow think he would approve.

[Auric Demonocles]

We all approve.

[Pro Libertate]

That's what all of my law school friends said, too.

[Auric Demonocles]

While 'all' is technically accurate, when it only refers to 1 it is misleading.

[Pro Libertate]

Oh, I had friends. But, being law students, they all betrayed me and their country.

[Montani Semper Liberi]

I'm sure those people were randomly selected.

[T]

Just Like Me?

I bet not.

[Mike M.]

I guess this is what you have to do when your approval rating heading into reelection is even lower than Jimmy Carter's was.

[Poet Laureate sloopyinca]

My sister took her kids to the Children's Inaugural Ball in 2008 because they got free tix (her husband got them because of his Army duty at the time). Her second daughter, 9 at the time, asked "Who's that asshole" when Biden went on stage. My sister said it was the Vice-President. Her daughter then retorted, "Where's the other asshole?"

Girl may have tourettes, because when we all went to the pier at Newport Beach this past spring, she called a few girls who were dressed up for their prom whores rather loudly.

[Poet Laureate sloopyinca]

I guess it was 2009, actually.

[Warty]

Well, the P and VP are assholes, and prom does turn high school girls into whores. It's not the little girl's fault if she just calls 'em like she sees 'em.

[Dagny T.]

I actually regret not wearing something more whoreish to my prom. You just don't get that many free passes to wear something really scandalous, and for some reason the trend at my school was long and/or poofy dresses. Opportunity: missed.

[SugarFree]

If it helps, you are always dressed as a whore in my mind's eye.

[SugarFree]

And so is Warty.

[Dagny T.]

That helps immensely! But Warty's bulging thighs really do look better than mine in a miniskirt.

[Pro Libertate]

Just photoshop your prom pictures to make you look whorish. Then post on Facebook. That rewrites the past.

[LarryA]

If I had a do-over for prom I'd follow the lead of the guy I saw taking his date into supper at Bass Pro Shop.

Wouldn't have to worry about meeting POTUS there.

[WTF]

Yeah, must be tourettes, she couldn't have gotten that stuff from dad.

[rather]

"My sister took her kids"...I have a feeling her mother talks that way.

[Captain America]

I am giving up my shield after watching this and now want to be called the Crimson Dynamo.

[CoyoteBlue]

I want to have dinner with Brak.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....re=related

[wylie]

more to the point, does Brak intend to run in 2012?

[Toasted]

Wanting to drink a beer with the president: Shallow and stupid. Wanting to eat a dinner: Man of the people or touching, as the highest vote comment declares.

Just reminiscing about the left during Bush.

[Abdul]

If Obama had to share a meal with half the douches in my neighborhood who put up a lawn sign for him, he'd resign.

[wylie]

this sounds like a better plan than stacking the guest-list with libertarians.

[Bill Jackson]

As much as I disagree with the man, I do believe that he is sincere in this kind of stuff and that he believes that what he is doing is the right path.

And even though I disagree with him, I'd be honored to meet him. The office that he holds deserves my respect, and it would be given.

which is, of course, a lot more than can be said about the people who disagreed with Bush when he occupied that chair.

[Enjoy Every Sandwich]

The office that he holds deserves my respect, and it would be given.

Why?

[Ice Nine]

Apparently this sort of thing is very humbling. Could you just barf?

[Tony]

She being too uppity for you Drudgeians?

[Ice Nine]

Not really. Her fawning drones are just being appallingly sycophantic.

It would appear that you're a fellow Drudgeian, BTW. Slip me the secret handshake, brah.

[romulus augustus]

I can think of something that Sarah Palin could raffle off to some lucky bidders. I bet John and I and not a few others would buy like a $1000 worth of tickets.

[Barely Suppressed Rage]

I wouldn't even pay $3 to have dinner with that asshole.

[Gelidus V]

Look at that Goop with his elbow on the table.

[jtuf]

You can still donate for a chance to win

Or, for $1 you can buy a lottery ticket for a chance to win millions of dollars. The value of a chance of winning something is less than the value of that something.

[Tulpa]

I wonder if the "winners" are allowed to bring a camera phone, ask the tough questions and post the answers on YT.

[LarryA]

I wonder if they'd let me attend carrying my concealed handgun.

Keeping it in my holster should prove once and for all that concealed handgun licensees can be trusted.

[Justin]

The donation was optional in both cases, spelled out in the fine print. Also, the winners had to pay income tax on the estimated value, which is a hefty $4800!