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.
