• May 25, 2012

As Elitists Go, Barack Obama Is A Terribly Violent Elitist

by Jim Newell  

Who cares about the stupid New Yorker cover? It just makes the silly-sallies at the Obama campaign look like, uh, silly-sallies, and makes the New Yorker look terribly unfunny, which it is, except for that Anthony Lane who is a stitch. No, the New Yorker is a not a comedic but a Journalistic magazine — and it can also help you figure out your summer vacations plans! Since you all have no homes or money, consider spending your “staycation” this way: roll yourself in a barrel down the street to your nearest public library with free Internet access, go to NewYorker.com and spend an ENTIRE WEEK reading Ryan Lizza’s 15,000-word — that’s 15 internet pages! — opus on Barack Obama’s Chicago days. What fun! We heard that Barack Obama threatens to kick someone’s ass in the piece, and since we are Dumb Americans, we found this juicy bit and read nothing else.

So one time, in 1997, when Barack Obama was a magician’s apprentice in the Illinois State Senate, he disagreed with some schmo about a bill and got, as this schmo might imply, “uppity.”

Although the exchange was part of a longstanding tradition of hazing new legislators, the tensions between Hendon and Obama were real. On another occasion, Obama voted—a parliamentary error, Obama says—to block funding for a child-welfare facility in Hendon’s district. Hendon rose and criticized Obama for the vote. The two men became embroiled in a yelling match on the Senate floor that looked as if it might become physical; they were separated by Courtney Nottage, then the chief of staff for Emil Jones. Nottage led Obama off the floor to a room that legislators used to make telephone calls. “It looked like two men that were having a serious disagreement and they had walked up to one another really close,” Nottage told me. “I didn’t think anything good could come of that.”

Hendon told me, “He’s the one that got mad, because he said I embarrassed him on the Senate floor. That’s when he came over to my desk.” Before Nottage broke them up, Obama, who had learned to box from his Indonesian stepfather, supposedly told Hendon, “I’m going to kick your ass!” Hendon said, “He said something like that.” He added that more details will appear in a book that he’s written, entitled “Black Enough, White Enough: The Obama Dilemma.”

We have put that last part in bold to emphasize how reliable and unbiased a storyteller this Hendon fellow is.

Making It [New Yorker]

{ 40 comments }

RuperttheBear July 14, 2008 at 2:04 pm

Archival footage from the Illinois State Legislature:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lU0HFjDScCM

WonksRunAmuck July 14, 2008 at 2:04 pm

So the truth about the fistbump finally comes out – it’s an indonesian boxer death threat…much less mass-hysteria inducing, mmmmkay?

Blow Up Speaker Doll July 14, 2008 at 2:05 pm

He hopes like a butterfly, stings like a bee!

Gopherit v2.0 July 14, 2008 at 2:13 pm

Was this before or after he smoked crack and sucked the guy off?

Cicada July 14, 2008 at 2:15 pm

Does this mean we might actually get a Hopey/WALNUTS throwdown during the debates? Of course, WALNUTS prefers the term “fisticuffs”.

jimh July 14, 2008 at 2:16 pm

The New Yorker should get savvy, and rename its online presence “TL;DR”.

TGY July 14, 2008 at 2:17 pm

Nobody engages in bipartisanship like those whose asses have been kicked.

AfghanVet July 14, 2008 at 2:17 pm

Well, at least he wasn’t paddled in his undies by the “Old Bones”.

Cicada July 14, 2008 at 2:17 pm

[re=35497]Gopherit v2.0[/re]: Gotta be after. Nothing makes you edgier than a crack comedown and a bellyful of hustler spooge.

queeraselvis v 2.0 July 14, 2008 at 2:18 pm

He wears a mustache that curls down the sides of his upper lip in a permanent expression of melancholy. We met in a Houlihan’s, off the lobby of the building that houses the Obama campaign headquarters.

Jesus, who is writing this drivel? Joyce Carol Oates? Oh wait, they mention a Houlihan’s. Must be Sebastian Junger.

ManchuCandidate July 14, 2008 at 2:18 pm

Somewhere Joe Lie just shit himself.

sleepy July 14, 2008 at 2:19 pm

wait, the fight got broken up by a girl named courtney nottage? somehow, that’s hot.

mbprice July 14, 2008 at 2:19 pm

The greatest part about this is that the GOP wouldn’t dare make something like that a campaign issue because their base would feel all tingly in their special parts at someone making ass-kicking threats.

methuselas baby July 14, 2008 at 2:20 pm

This further proves the Senator’s hidden ties to the Wu Tang Clan, who I am told are a splinter group of Abu Saayaf.

gjdodger July 14, 2008 at 2:21 pm

Just call him “Madassas” Clay!

Donkey Sauce July 14, 2008 at 2:25 pm

“Negotiation without preconditions” = Indonesian karate chop to the face.

shortsshortsshorts July 14, 2008 at 2:29 pm

Umm ya, I call bullshit. No brotha’ would ever say “I’m going to kick your ass.” I mean C’MON. Barry would of course say “I gonna pop a cap in ‘yo ass” or “You best shut your damn mouth before I do it for you.”

Not stereotypical enough. Therefore- Bullshit.

jagorev July 14, 2008 at 2:33 pm

Combined with McCain’s thin-skinned hot temper, this fall has potential to be legendary.

Also, what’s with these Illinois state legislator names? “Courtney Nottage”? “Barack Obama”? WTF?

ronaldpagan July 14, 2008 at 2:41 pm

Ooooh, Hendon’s gonna get his ass kicked now.

AhojChris July 14, 2008 at 2:52 pm

A terrorist fist-jab to the New Yorker

Truculent July 14, 2008 at 3:04 pm

Maybe it’s jsut me, but I read the New Yorker for the little cartoons. There’s no way I’m plowing through 15,000 words on any politician.

Al Franken, by the way, got a new challenger today by the name of Priscilla Lord. With Jesse jumping in tonight Minnesotans will have to choose between a puppet, a comedian, a clown, and an anachronism.

Harvey Birdman July 14, 2008 at 3:10 pm

[re=35505]Cicada[/re]: Jerri Blank, is that you?

NotMyRealName July 14, 2008 at 3:15 pm

The New Yorker may be belligerent and borderline racist, but it’s only trying to live up to its name.

Serolf Divad July 14, 2008 at 3:18 pm

The Obama campaign quickly condemned the rendering. Spokesman Bill Burton said in a statement: “The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Sen. Obama’s right-wing critics have tried to create. But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree.”

Actually… no… your average New Yorker reader has a pretty well developed sense of irony. Hell, I mostly just read the cartoons and had no trouble “getting” the cover.

AxmxZ July 14, 2008 at 3:25 pm

The article is quite good. Barry “Lord Vetinari” Obama for Patrician!

Sean O July 14, 2008 at 3:28 pm

[re=35501]Cicada[/re]: obama vs. mccain = Pedro vs. Don Zimmer

WadISay July 14, 2008 at 3:28 pm

[re=35514]gjdodger[/re]: Or the Madrassa Mauler.

PortlandSmartAss July 14, 2008 at 3:29 pm

You’d never have heard John Kerry or Al Gore talking about kicking someone’s ass on the floor of the Senate.

Mo MoDo July 14, 2008 at 3:33 pm

The debate floor expletive-laden threats proves that Barry is at least qualified enough to be Vice-President.

V572625694 July 14, 2008 at 3:37 pm

[re=35510]sleepy[/re]: I don’t think so: http://www.hinshawculbertson.com …although others may disagree.

V572625694 July 14, 2008 at 3:38 pm

[re=35570]NotMyRealName[/re]: +1

Fear of a Black Reagan July 14, 2008 at 3:50 pm

[re=35535]ronaldpagan[/re]: Sumthin’ tells me there’s gonna be a new federal sewage treatment plant in this facility by like February 1, 2009.

Canmon (the Inadequate) July 14, 2008 at 4:02 pm

I didn’t bother reading the article but the catoons are worse than Family Circus.

23 Skidoo July 14, 2008 at 4:09 pm

If I can depart from my usual smug, useless and often-failing cheap attempts at humor: Ugh Barry…. what are you doing? Commenting on satire does not tend to demonstrate you have the thickest skin, especially when the satire’s clear intent was not to goof on you, but to goof on all the mouth breathers out there. If and when you get elected, and I hope you do…. I hope you understand it’s going to get a lot more “tasteless and offensive” than this, and you gotta learn to accept it.

tocute2btrue July 14, 2008 at 5:53 pm

SMOKING MAY BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH

ladymacbeth July 14, 2008 at 8:45 pm

anthony lane IS a stitch

Outstando July 14, 2008 at 9:14 pm

What do you call a gay staycation?

Outstando July 14, 2008 at 9:15 pm

[re=35510]sleepy[/re]: this whole story is my ‘frottage’ mnemonic.

lawchic July 14, 2008 at 11:55 pm

I love how the other Senator is all like, yeah, Obama started the fight with me, and he was trying to provoke me, and he got in my face and threatened me, but to learn more about what really happened (wink, wink) read it in my forthcoming book where I try to make money off of Obama. Priceless.

Studge July 16, 2008 at 2:56 pm

[re=35532]jagorev[/re]: How could you forget the alderman, Toni Preckwinkle?

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