Althouse: "Recently, I've been taking a series of executive actions that don't require congressional approval."

November 24, 2011

"Recently, I've been taking a series of executive actions that don't require congressional approval."

"Well, here's another one. We can't wait to pardon these turkeys."

(I love the complete lack of enthusiasm from the daughters, including declining to laugh at dad's jokes.)

47 comments:

GK said...: "I love the complete lack of enthusiasm from the daughters..."

Obama doesn't generate much enthusiasm from anybody anymore.; 11/24/11, 7:19 AM
Bob said...: He's our first snarky, sarcastic president since Nixon, isn't he?; 11/24/11, 7:20 AM
sakredkow said...: That was fun. "Two local turkeys who weren't so lucky."; 11/24/11, 7:21 AM
AllenS said...: It's one of the worse days of the year to be a turkey

That's when I quit. Sure, like all of the other days are a lot of fun and games.; 11/24/11, 7:33 AM
DaveW said...: Notice at one point he says "this is actually true". Good thing he told us, since otherwise we'd have to assume he was lying throughout. Of course, he could have been - probably was - lying when he said that.

Mom should have told the girls to smile a bit, at least when he tells a joke. I think having them there looking so disinterested is worse than not having them there at all. Makes it look like they were forced to do something they didn't like.; 11/24/11, 7:38 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "Mom should have told the girls to smile a bit..."

Maybe that's why they're not smiling. They were told to be good props for their father?; 11/24/11, 7:42 AM
TWM said...: "I love the complete lack of enthusiasm from the daughters..."

Just like their mom I imagine. Can you imagine being married to this loser?; 11/24/11, 7:44 AM
Bill Harshaw said...: So what's Obama's biggest challenge: getting reelected, keeping us safe from foreign enemies, getting the economy humming again, or being the father of a teenage daughter and a pre-teen?; 11/24/11, 7:45 AM
AllenS said...: We know that according to Michelle that he's “snore-y and stinky”, so maybe that's why they didn't seem happy to be there.; 11/24/11, 7:54 AM
Paul said...: Obama joke?

If he tried to find work as a comedian he would starve. I'm sure his whole family is bored stiff with him.

Come to think of it, after he leaves office I can see a way to cut the budget. Cut Obama's $200,000 pay he gets after he leaves cause he never earned it.; 11/24/11, 8:18 AM
Cedarford said...: Just one year I'd like the President to announce that he had weighed the facts, and the Turkeys would NOT be pardoned. Day after Thanksgiving, little caskets bearing their remains sent out from the well-fed people at the White House dinner to Disney World or whatever agency accepts the pardoned Turkeys each year.

Put some suspense into it, for Christsakes!!; 11/24/11, 8:23 AM
Spread Eagle said...: Obama really doesn't have much of a sense of humor that I can see. The little bit he does have is always put to use in service of some political point of view, and tends to be cynical and nasty.; 11/24/11, 8:25 AM
John henry said...: I've never gotten this whole pardoning of turkeys thing.

So 2 turkeys were pardoned (though not that turkey Rezko). I am guessing that there will still be turkey served at the WH today so 2 other turkeys died that these 2 might live.

Seems like a sham to me.

If he was going to pardon the turkeys, he should 1) Announce that they will never serve turkey in the WH again 2) Call for everyone to follow the same policy.

Why shouldn't turkey farmers feel the pain like the rest of us?

Speaking of turkeys, have you ever seen the chicken catching machine? I presume that it works with turkeys as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRwNJxk8LrQ

Every time I see it, I am reminded of the movie Caligula. Another giant turkey.

John Henry; 11/24/11, 8:28 AM
AllenS said...: John, there are a lot of turkey barns where I live and they are gathered up the same way.; 11/24/11, 8:34 AM
pm317 said...: It is so like him to make the mountain of a molehill.. no experience needed for this photo op.; 11/24/11, 8:44 AM
pm317 said...: Did he call the Congress critters turkeys?; 11/24/11, 8:46 AM
Anonymous said...: Would resigning require congressional approval? Who is going to pardon us from this turkey?; 11/24/11, 8:50 AM
Phil 314 said...: Who started this inane tradition anyway!; 11/24/11, 9:25 AM
Brian Brown said...: Recently, I've been taking a series of executive actions that don't require congressional approval,

Oh how funny!

I guess the left believes in the unitary executive after all!; 11/24/11, 9:52 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: ""Recently, I've been taking a series of executive actions that don't require congressional approval.""

This is esp. true after the Dems lost the House last year. And, it is worrisome in a lot of cases - shutting down fossil fuels, increasing gasoline costs, attempting to require registration of all guns, strengthening labors' bargaining rights, etc. But, this time is traditional, and I don't mind one bit here.; 11/24/11, 9:55 AM
edutcher said...: Sounds like Sasha and Malia, at their exclusive private school, have actually studied the Constitution and how their father is raping it and they were embarrassed.

Seems like the young ladies picked up consciences, despite their parents' best efforts.

OTOH, I suppose it's professional courtesy; one turkey saving two others.

Cedarford said...

Just one year I'd like the President to announce that he had weighed the facts, and the Turkeys would NOT be pardoned. Day after Thanksgiving, little caskets bearing their remains sent out from the well-fed people at the White House dinner to Disney World or whatever agency accepts the pardoned Turkeys each year.

You'll have to vote for Sarah Palin for President to see that.; 11/24/11, 10:00 AM
edutcher said...: PS Damn, I almost forgot, "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly".

Can't let the day go by without a nod to the best Thanksgiving TV episode ever.; 11/24/11, 10:02 AM
AllenS said...: edutcher, I've often heard that statement, but until today, I never knew what it was about. Wild turkeys can fly and I thought everyone knew that. I was just over at Instapundit and watched the TV clip on where that statement came from. Pretty funny.; 11/24/11, 11:01 AM
Anonymous said...: When he has to be charming, he fails, doesn't he? Just doesn't like us.

I can almost hear the girls thinking, Oh Dad!; 11/24/11, 11:29 AM
edutcher said...: AllenS said...

edutcher, I've often heard that statement, but until today, I never knew what it was about. Wild turkeys can fly and I thought everyone knew that. I was just over at Instapundit and watched the TV clip on where that statement came from. Pretty funny.

Maybe once or twice in my life have I laughed that hard.

Allen, if my mentioning that led you to it, you made my day.; 11/24/11, 11:32 AM
Wince said...: Actually, Obama makes a bishop's blessing sign of the cross @4:09, when he says, "I gotta give 'em a little symbol," all the while avoiding any excessive entanglement with the turkey for the secular purpose of pardoning it.; 11/24/11, 11:45 AM
Wince said...: Obama may have publicly pardoned the turkeys...

But just in case, he had David Axlerod pry open their sealed divorce records just in case they mount a campaign challenge next November.; 11/24/11, 11:48 AM
Wince said...: The real tragedy is these pardoned turkeys will not receive the same attention after their release that slaughtered turkeys do.; 11/24/11, 11:50 AM
Carnifex said...: Sushi and Mongolia looked disinterested because they were. What sort of man uses his own kids for a photo op? And I'm not just pointing a finger at the angry sock monkey here.

Allen, don't feel too bad, my SO misses a lot of pop culture references because she doesn't care about pop culture. Not a bad thing all in all. Though the turkey episode is classic. I can actually picture some people not knowing domestic turkeys can't fly. Some get so big they can't even walk. Domestic turkeys are so large they need human assistance to breed (not joking)

Anyway. I hope you got to see the "shrinkage" episode of Seinfeld. Another instant classic.; 11/24/11, 11:58 AM
John from Pomeroy on the Palouse said...: "the rare exception of course are the two birds [turkeys] who have joined me today..."

This being said as the camera closes in on Obama and his two daughters.

I'd have thought that mom would have made an effort to have fixed the older daughter's hair so that she wasn't constantly having to pull it out of her eyes and off her face.; 11/24/11, 12:07 PM
Chip S. said...: Sushi and Mongolia

Your sense of humor is on a par with your taste in music.; 11/24/11, 12:17 PM
Paul Kirchner said...: "Recently, I've been taking a series of executive actions that don't require congressional approval."

"We can't wait for congress to make the trains run on time."

--B. Mussolini; 11/24/11, 12:55 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: The quote in the title of this post is classic Obama. He's kind of a jerk. (Jerk wasn't the first word I was thinking of, but hey, it's Thanksgiving, so I'll be nicer.); 11/24/11, 12:57 PM
Chip S. said...: This was one of the rare times when I actually laughed at one of Obama's jokes. He mocked himself pretty insightfully @2:15 in the video, using his standard wide grin as an example of effective evasion of tough questions.; 11/24/11, 1:05 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Why are Presidents made to do this?; 11/24/11, 1:11 PM
Chip S. said...: Blame Bush the Elder. Once idiocy like this gets started it seems hard to stop.

Imagine the press conference: "Why didn't you pardon a turkey this year?"; 11/24/11, 1:16 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Imagine the press conference: "Why didn't you pardon a turkey this year?"

"We reviewed the case, and that turkey was guilty of being delicious."

Since it started in 1989, that's not too old of a tradition. They should just stop.; 11/24/11, 2:17 PM
Chip S. said...: "Why didn't you pardon a turkey this year?"

"We reviewed the case, and that turkey was guilty of being delicious."

Always nice to see a pitch in the center of the strike zone hit out of the park.; 11/24/11, 3:25 PM
Ralph L said...: Since it started in 1989
That's when the official pardons started. Earlier presidents publicly gave them reprieves. Shows the decline of the American character. Go Sarah. Off with their heads.; 11/24/11, 3:33 PM
JAL said...: The Turkey Pardon: Metaphor for the Entire Obama Presidency; 11/24/11, 5:04 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: Wild turkeys can fly and I thought everyone knew that.

About 20 years ago, west of Denver up in the mountains, we had turkeys, as well as bears and mountain lions. But, luckily, no pre-venisons (bears and mountain lions probably took care of that problem).

The turkeys were fun to watch. We would watch them on the road maybe 1/4 mile (or 2 or 3 houses) up from us every evening. The males would sometimes blow themselves up and strut (which is when their tails would fan out).

The population would seem to go up and down every year - it would jump and then slowly decline. Figure some of their predators were getting the slower ones.

Found out why they were hanging out there - one of the neighbors was feeding them - up until they found bear scat on their front porch.

Also saw a lot of them this last summer/fall in NW Montana. They were pretty brazen, but not as brazen as the pre-venisons.; 11/24/11, 5:43 PM
MadisonMan said...: Dad, do we haaave to?

If I were President, this pardoning turkey nonsense would stop. Waste of time, waste of money.; 11/24/11, 9:51 PM
MadisonMan said...: Or maybe I'd say I've decided not to pardon this turkey after all and haul out the meat cleaver.; 11/24/11, 9:57 PM
AllenS said...: I have a lot of wild turkeys out here. Every morning I walk out back and throw sunflower seeds for them. They roost in the trees at night. They are able to fly quite early in life, and will immediately look for a tree to land in when flushed.

Domestic turkeys are unable to fly because of the size of their breasts. They have been bred for that result. Wild turkeys don't have that feature.; 11/24/11, 11:35 PM
MathMom said...: Those two girls rarely smile. It's not normal for children to be so morose.; 11/25/11, 7:28 AM
Synova said...: No doubt it was cute the first time.; 11/25/11, 7:59 PM
Cincinnatus said...: I can't think of a public appearance by Obama in the last year and a half that didn't look like he just hated the job.; 11/25/11, 9:30 PM