Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Excuse Me, but is that Jackass with You?


I love that President Obama called Kanye West "a jackass." You have to trust a man who calls 'em like he sees 'em.

For those of you living on Venus or Saturn, West hijacked the acceptance speech of Taylor Swift, a county music sensation whose name I had heard but quite frankly, didn't know if it was a guy or girl. She won the MTV Award for Best Female Video and as she began her acceptance speech, West grabbed her microphone and announced that Beyonce should have won. (Beyonce later won the Best Video of the Year award.) Ms. Swift was so rattled that she walked offstage without giving her speech, and then had to perform live five minutes later. Beyonce proved that she is a class act when she got her own award and asked Taylor Swift to return to the stage to have her moment which had been taken away by West.

Apparently, a reporter preparing to interview President Obama a few days later asked what he thought of the drama at the awards.

"I thought that was really inappropriate," he said. "What are you butting in (for)? The young lady seems like a perfectly nice person. She's getting her award. What's he doing up there?"

A reporter then asked him, "Why would he do it?"

"He's a jackass," Obama replied. He immediately realized that he may have gone too far because he then appealed to the assembled reporters to keep his remark private. "Come on guys," he said. "Cut the president some slack. I've got a lot of other stuff on my plate." There is normally an assumption that presidential off-the-cuff remarks before a speech or interview are also off the record, but somebody immediately leaked his comment to Twitter where it caused a hail storm of debate.

I am not a Country Music fan but I watched the YouTube video of Taylor Swift, "You Belong With Me" and it's adorable. She is adorable, although admittedly part of my fascination was with her flawless 19-year old complexion.

Kanye West finally called her to apologize and she accepted his apology. She is a class act, too, and a very talented young performer. But Mr. West may want to take up meditation or anger management so they don't have to muzzle him for next year's award ceremony.

14 comments:

molly said...

Oh, I cheered too when I heard that. I like a man who's not afraid to call a jackass a jackass!

the walking man said...

Maybe anger management would help Mr. West but I think he should first quit drinking Hennessy on the red carpet.

http://www.okmagazine.com/2009/09/video-kanye-west-knocks-back-the-cognac-at-vmas/

Lone Grey Squirrel said...

Kanye West needed to be told that he is one.

CiCi said...

Hopefully, Kanye West will not be allowed on the stage in the future at events such as this. He was so rude and it was not his place at all to do that.

meno said...

I missed all this fuss. Oh. Darn.

Lex said...

I think the best thing the POTUS can do is not address the comment. It was true. It was fair. It should have remained off the record.

P.S. - I howled when I heard it! Gotta love him.

Anonymous said...

I guess I was on Saturn or Venus -- and it was a loverly vacation away from this maddening Earth -- for I did not hear what Kanye West did, only that he did something that he needed to apologize for. I can only shake my head.

I love your labels on this post. What a great mix of words.

JennyMac said...

And bravo for Obama not calling Kanye what I did..which was dbag.

barry burns said...

I think obama is cool and kanye just needs a reality check but things should clear up soon with a possible chance of bull shit and a slight breeze of more shit in from the west...

heartinsanfrancisco said...

Molly,

Me,too!

Mark,

Hennessy never helps.

Calvin,

Definitely. Identifying the problem is the first step.

Babe,

The guy really needs to work on his people skills.

Meno,

Those who went to the show got more than the show they expected, a show within a show.

Lex,

I laughed with glee, too, but do agree that the president's remarks should have been left off the record. I guess that's one vote he's lost when he's up for reelection.

David,

I don't think anyone has ever commented on my labels before. Sometimes I try to amuse myself with them.

I only came in on the aftermath, too, but it was too good not to share.

Jenny,

Who knows what he said to Michelle in the privacy of their home with only 73 Secret Service agents listening?

Thanks for your visit.

Barry,

That does seem to be the specialty of the house with him.

Thank you, too, for coming by.

Jocelyn said...

I had to send out my first tweet in days last night, saying that Obama's comment about Kanye had made my day.

I'm not a country music person, either, but what I've gleaned about Taylor Swift is that she's uncommonly grounded for what that world is throwing at her. Perhaps she would have been better prepared for Kanye to storm the stage, had she seen the photos of him on the red carpet with a huge bottle of whiskey in his hand, before the show. SUCH jackassery.

Anyhow, thanks for letting me know you wanted to comment on the sunflower post but couldn't. I don't know if anyone else was running into problems with commenting, but I'm going to pretend they have--and that's why there aren't, um, at least 20 more comments.

heartinsanfrancisco said...

Jocelyn,

Have you ever before in your life had a president who made your day? Me neither.

Your blog usually takes a long time to load because you have so many great pictures, but this time, despite many attempts, I could not scale the wall. (Sniff.) If you have less than your accustomed 763 or 4 comments, that is surely the reason.

secret agent woman said...

Obama was right. How rude of West.

heartinsanfrancisco said...

Agent,

First time anyone ever accused Obama of being "right." :)