Postscript on the Obama sacred cow

An excellent example of the extraordinary kid-glove treatment of Obama by comedians that has been the norm ever since he came into the political limelight occurred last night (Monday, July 21) on the popular and Emmy-award-winning American television show Late Show with David Letterman, in its regular comedic bit called the “Top Ten”.

The Top Ten featured the topic “Top Ten Questions Asked of Barack Obama on His Trip Overseas”:

Here is that Top Ten list, with my comments in brackets:

10. “Which countries do you plan to invade based on faulty intelligence?”

[A dig at Bush, not at Obama]

9. “Seriously, why the hell do you want this job?”

[A very mild and breezy humorous remark generally about the Presidency, and unrelated to Obama]

8. “Are you looking for a great deal on a used camel?”

[A mild dig at Middle Eastern culture, again unrelated to Obama]

7. “If you want to visit a war zone, how about the Alex Rodriguez marriage?”

[A pointed dig at Alex Rodriguez, again unrelated to Obama]

6. “So is Lindsay Lohan actually dating that chick?”

[A pointed dig at Lindsay Lohan, again unrelated to Obama]

5. “Can you explain the 'feels like' number?”

[A silly reference to a previous comedic bit on the show that night, utterly unrelated to Obama]

4.“How many Obamas still living in Ireland?”

[Finally, something vaguely in the vicinity of Obama—here, a dig at his name so light and breezy it would refresh someone on a hot day]

3. “If you’re elected, will you be an entertaining dumb-ass like Bush?”

[A harsh and pointed dig at Bush, not at Obama]

2. “Can you do anything about Andy Dick?”

[A pointed dig at Andy Dick, again unrelated to Obama]

1. “Do you know Batman?”

[A flippant throw-away attempt at humor, again utterly unrelated to Obama]

Out of ten jokes supposed centered around Obama, only one even approaches the general vicinity of a vague tilt at him, by mildly joking about his name—apparently it passed the stringent racism test noted by the show’s executive producer, Rob Burnett, who was quoted in a recent New York Times article (as we noted in our previous article on this topic) as speculating that “Anything that has even a whiff of being racist, no one is going to laugh. . . The audience is not going to allow anyone to do that.”

Again, as we observed in our previous article on this topic, the most likely reason for this sacred cow treatment of Obama, as enjoying the privilege of being beyond any significantly pointed humor, is reverse racism.