(Sept. 15) -- It appears President Obama has finally made a statement everyone agrees with. The problem is, you're not supposed to know he said it.
ABC's Terry Moran fired out a tweet last night revealing that, during a CNBC interview, the president called Kanye West a "jackass" for storming onstage at MTV's Video Music Awards and interrupting Taylor Swift's acceptance speech. Moran soon yanked the message from Twitter and ABC apologized, saying Obama's comment was supposed to be off the record.
West has been universally vilified since Sunday night's outburst. MSNBC's Technotica wraps up the reaction in an article titled "Even Internet Hitler Hates Kanye West." But getting dissed by the president takes things to a whole new level. In a post on the blog Another Black Conservative, Clifton B says he and Obama agree on this one, but he thinks it would have been better if the president had just said "no comment" -- because any comment only generates more publicity for West.
As ABC reports, the rapper has a history of getting attention by doing outrageous things on the air. So was it merely coincidence that his stunt at the VMAs came on the night before West appeared on the debut of Jay Leno's new show -- during which the rapper issued yet another apology? In showbiz, timing is everything.
With Rep. Joe Wilson's heckling of the president still fresh in the public mind, it was inevitable that someone would create this Kanye-vs-Obama mashup -- which is zooming up the viral video charts.
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Wilson, facing disciplinary action in the House for yelling "you lie" at the president, has vowed to make no more apologies. Meanwhile, one of his GOP colleagues is demanding an apology -- and more -- from a top House Democrat. Writing on Red State, John Carter of Texas says New York's Charlie Rangel should step down as Ways and Means Committee chairman. Rangel is accused of hiding hundreds of thousands of dollars in assets and violating the tax laws his committee writes.
When confronted about his finances, Rangel accused the New York Post of running a smear campaign against him. But other publications are criticizing the veteran lawmaker, too.
"There is something wrong with Charlie Rangel," columnist Richard Cohen declares in Tuesday's Washington Post. Rangel must go for the sake of his party, Peter Roff adds on U.S. News and World Report. But that won't happen, Douglas Turner predicts in the Buffalo News, because Democrats get millions of dollars from Rangel.
