# The President walks into a bar... **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 2, 2007, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-walks-into-a-bar/390522 "2007-02-02T11:03:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2007, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-walks-into-a-bar/390522/61 "2007-02-03T07:41:43Z")
_“Normally Play-Doh is about as exciting as my day gets.”_ Only because we weren’t so blessed. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2007, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-walks-into-a-bar/390522/62 "2007-02-03T07:56:09Z")
Hmm… Wondering how the MSNBC-Newsweek account could be so different from the local paper, I spent about half an hour digging into this, and Garfield is right. It turns out the BBC [reported](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6315881.stm) enthusiastic receptions, but still it’s just dueling media. Then I found [this page](http://brentroos.com/2007/02/01/peoria-welcomes-george-w-bush/), arguably put together by a Bush fan, but still there are pictures from the restaurant. And a video. From the restaurant. 😃 It doesn’t look like snubbing, frankly. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2007, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-walks-into-a-bar/390522/63 "2007-02-03T10:01:22Z")
[QUOTE=Garfield226] So, sorry to ruin that for you… Now back to your regularly scheduled Bush-bash. [/QUOTE] What part of the news you quote actually contradicts the OP? The gist of the OP is that the Pres got a less than effusive reception. Your quotes just show that firstly \*\*some \*\* people who were there were keen on the Pres (which the OP doesn’t deny) and that a visit by the Pres was memorable for those you quote, which it would be regardless of the general level of enthusiasm for him. Ya got nuthin so far. ---
**Author:** ![Garfield226](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2007, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-walks-into-a-bar/390522/64 "2007-02-03T10:03:33Z")
[QUOTE=Princhester] What part of the news you quote actually contradicts the OP? The gist of the OP is that the Pres got a less than effusive reception. Your quotes just show that some people who were there were keen on the Pres and that the visit was memorable. Ya got nuthin so far. [/QUOTE] It refutes the part of the OP that says “everybody ignores him”, maybe? ---
**Author:** ![Garfield226](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2007, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-walks-into-a-bar/390522/65 "2007-02-03T10:04:55Z")
Additionally, the part that says he came face to face with the part of the public that wishes he’d disappear. So, pretty much all of it really. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2007, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-walks-into-a-bar/390522/66 "2007-02-03T10:06:34Z")
I think that one is allowed a little hyperbole, particularly when one links to and quotes extensively from the source of the story so that the fact that one is being a little hyperbolic in one’s opening statement is clear. Even if your quotes contradict “everyone ignores him” they don’t make a dent on the gist of the story or the OP. You’ve ruined nuthin. ---
**Author:** ![Garfield226](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2007, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-walks-into-a-bar/390522/67 "2007-02-03T10:39:01Z")
[QUOTE=Princhester] I think that one is allowed a little hyperbole, particularly when one links to and quotes extensively from the source of the story so that the fact that one is being a little hyperbolic in one’s opening statement is clear. Even if your quotes contradict “everyone ignores him” they don’t make a dent on the gist of the story or the OP. You’ve ruined nuthin. [/QUOTE] Yes, you’re completely right – how silly of me. The first one and a half pages of this thread CLEARLY got across the fact that many people at the restaurant thoroughly enjoyed the President’s visit, and absolutely DID NOT gloat over the “fact” that he was ignored. How ever could I have been so misled, with such gems as > [@](#): > > It may be a very small bit of schaudenfreude, but it’s sweet to see Bush come face to face with a public that wishes he’d just disappear. > [@](#): > > He didn’t declare the place a Free Speech Zone and have everyone arrested? > [@](#): > > So it really didn’t play in Peoria, is what the article is trying to say. > [@](#): > > “Say, Jim, ain’t that your dog attacking the President?” > [@](#): > > That sounds eerily like an SNL sketch from the 80’s, in which Bush père (Dana Carvey), whose approval ratings were also tanking, went into a diner with his Secret Service detail to try to muster up support—and met with a similarly chilly reception. He wandered around uncomfortably, muttering something like “hello there… Desert Storm… hi, how are you doing today…Desert Storm…” and every few seconds asked his aide if it were time to leave yet. > [@](#): > > I think what you saw is the country’s reaction when the reaction isn’t carefully choreographed. > [@](#): > > Funny think is, there’s a bit on Snopes about a e-mail going around that shows Kelly looking like he’s sitting by himself, and text saying he was roundly snubbed by the troops who wouldn’t even eat with him. > > Problem is he had spent the trip out in the feild talking to the troops, had deleived an adress to severl hundred of them and the night befor had ate at a table with ten soilders looking for their thoughts on what needed to be done. They just snapped him when he took a minute to seet down with the press corp and update them. > > No snubb in evidence. Oh irony. I know you must feel a little deflated (the multiple orgasms this story must have caused in the hard-line lefties could account for that, single … um … handedly, let alone the realization that it didn’t happen quite the way they pictured it after all), but for pete’s sake… The OPs link to a column describes a sedate reception and a deafening quiet. The articles I posted clearly show a different scene. Thanks to **Liberal** ’s link, there are photos of people at the event who are clearly NOT ignoring the president, which would seem to give a bit more weight to the local paper’s stories. Unless you’ve got some photos or something showing If I’ve “ruined nuthin,” it’s only because you’re too in love with the delusion that the President was ignored to see the real story. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2007, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-walks-into-a-bar/390522/68 "2007-02-03T12:58:54Z")
Bush is still a liberty smashing tyrant. But you are correct. It does seem that the MSNBC-Newseek reporters took, um, liberties with the facts. I should have known better, frankly. There’s no way he’s walking into an event where the participants haven’t been hand picked. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2007, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-walks-into-a-bar/390522/69 "2007-02-03T14:32:50Z")
There is nothing in that BBC article that contradicts the OP’s link that Bush got a less than effusive reaction in the diner. The only mention of the diner in that article is in the context of someone being _negative_ about a Bush policy on free trade. **Garfield** your first link says nothing to contradict the OP article at all other than to say a waitress was excited to have served the president and that people were talking about his visit. Your second linked article describes similar reactions. Whoopydoo. They would have been excited to have been in a diner with any president just because small town diners don’t receive Leaders of Superpowers every day. Doesn’t mean that the OP’s article which says his reception in the diner was less effusive than a POTUS normally gets is inaccurate. Your second article also describes the reactions of _Bush’s own breakfast invitees_. You are surely not stupid enough to think they weren’t hand picked and necessarily representative of the rest of the people in the diner? Plus it describes the Alveys, who had no choice because Bush sat down at their table. They say nothing effusive about Bush at all but just express some excitement at having met the Pres. And that he showed “kindness”. Wowee. The key descriptive points made in the quote (leaving out editorialising) in the OP are as follows. Let’s see if your articles contradict: “_No one rushed to shake his hand_.” - Nope _"There were no audible gasps or yelps of excitement that usually accompany visits like this_. " - Nuh _“In Peoria this week, many patrons found their pancakes more interesting. Except for the click of news cameras and the clang of a dish from the kitchen, the quiet was deafening.”_ - the only talking mentioned in your linked articles is from conversations commenced by Bush himself _"Another woman, eyeing Bush and his entourage, sighed heavily and went back to her paper. She was reading the obituaries. “Sorry to interrupt your breakfast,” a White House aide told her. “No problem,” she huffed, in a not-so-friendly way. “Life goes on, I guess.”_ - Nope. Your linked articles can be summarised as: Bush visited a Diner and spoke to some people. Some people were excited that the POTUS visited. None of that contradicts the OP. You’ve got nothing. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2007, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-walks-into-a-bar/390522/70 "2007-02-03T14:35:45Z")
[QUOTE=Liberal] Bush is still a liberty smashing tyrant. But you are correct. It does seem that the MSNBC-Newseek reporters took, um, liberties with the facts. I should have known better, frankly. There’s no way he’s walking into an event where the participants haven’t been hand picked. [/QUOTE] And Lib, you need to read more closely. Those articles use the classic trick of focussing on some shiny details while containing no overall description of the scene, in the hope you will assume the scene was shiny. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2007, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-walks-into-a-bar/390522/71 "2007-02-03T14:39:44Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > There is nothing in that BBC article that contradicts the OP’s link that Bush got a less than effusive reaction in the diner. Less than effusive? Could you be a bit more vague? 😃 I mean, no one fell to their knees and smothered his feet with kisses or anything, but Jesus, man, there comes a time to admit a mistake. The BBC article and the pictures and the video make it clear that the president was surrounded by people whom he engaged and who paid him lots of attention. Let us not embarrass ourselves with cheap rationalizations. ---
**Author:** ![Subway\_Prophet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecb155/32.png) [@Subway\_Prophet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Subway_Prophet)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2007, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-walks-into-a-bar/390522/72 "2007-02-03T17:32:46Z")
It’s not a failed photo op, it’s a ticker-tape parade that hasn’t happened yet. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2007, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-walks-into-a-bar/390522/74 "2007-02-03T19:23:04Z")
I have to say, **brentroos** , that your website shows us just how much a fair and impartial observer you are. The Obama photo retouch needed a bit of cleaning up, though, but the fake conversation between Mrs. Clinton and Mr. McCain brought back those childhood memories of reading a junior high school imitation of Cracked Magazine, so I guess that your site isn’t _totally_ worthless. ---
**Author:** ![zagloba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/977dab/32.png) [@zagloba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zagloba)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2007, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-walks-into-a-bar/390522/75 "2007-02-03T19:26:55Z")
[QUOTE=brentroos] Other than the 20 wackos (I counted them myself), President Bush was greeted with nothing but welcoming enthusiasm. [/QUOTE] From growing up there and visiting my parents there almost every year, this is much more in line with the kind of reception for him I would expect. Not that such near adulation of such a bad president is really anything to be proud of. One need not have a position as extreme as the 20 \*\*brentroos \*\*talked to to find Bush’s record highly objectionable. ---
**Author:** ![Waverly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/57b2e6/32.png) [@Waverly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waverly)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2007, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-walks-into-a-bar/390522/77 "2007-02-03T19:47:23Z")
[QUOTE=brentroos] The photo of Obama is not forged. [/QUOTE] It’s is not even a good forgery. Here is the original, btw: [http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:c9HBJSYvkg4HxM:http://www.theday.com/gbl/media/dynamic/lrgimages/a8obama120406.JPG](http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:c9HBJSYvkg4HxM:http://www.theday.com/gbl/media/dynamic/lrgimages/a8obama120406.JPG) The fact that he may smoke does not make it legitimate. He probably craps too, but that doesn’t mean you can make a photoshop image of him taking a dump and pass it off as real. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2007, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-walks-into-a-bar/390522/78 "2007-02-03T19:50:12Z")
Mr. Roos, I just want to say, right here, that I’m a patriot. I’m a proud American, and a registered Republican. I respect the office of the President of the United States of America, for he is the face that America gives to the world. I am very disappointed with the man who holds that office, right now. If he were to walk into a restaurant where I was, right now, I could think of very few better ways to express my disappointment than to ignore him, politely. This is why the event of the restaurant happens to draw my attention. Can you honestly describe what happened in that location when he walked in? Thank you for your time and effort. Oh, and welcome aboard. I admire your effort in keeping your blog up, though I have to admit I don’t quite understand some of the things you say on it. But I’m a old fashioned sort. I think Roosevelt ruined the country with the WPA projects, and I think that a man should be judged, not on the color of his skin, but by the content of his character and the quality of his efforts. I think that whatever a terrorist says about an issue should be ignored, and we should make our decisions based on what we feel is right. I think that each and every one of us should acknowledge that we hold this land in stewardship for our children, and that we have a responsibility to improve it for them, rather than lay it ruin. In fact, I think there’s a bit too much talking about rights, and not enough talking about responsibilities, on both the side of the citizen and the side of the government. You? ---
**Author:** ![zagloba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/977dab/32.png) [@zagloba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zagloba)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2007, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-walks-into-a-bar/390522/80 "2007-02-03T19:58:33Z")
Neither does one have to hate the president to peacefully protest his policies. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2007, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-walks-into-a-bar/390522/82 "2007-02-03T20:07:08Z")
[QUOTE=Waverly] It’s is not even a good forgery. Here is the original, btw: [http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:c9HBJSYvkg4HxM:http://www.theday.com/gbl/media/dynamic/lrgimages/a8obama120406.JPG](http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:c9HBJSYvkg4HxM:http://www.theday.com/gbl/media/dynamic/lrgimages/a8obama120406.JPG) The fact that he may smoke does not make it legitimate. He probably craps too, but that doesn’t mean you can make a photoshop image of him taking a dump and pass it off as real. [/QUOTE] [QUOTE=brentroos] The power of the truth will set you free. At times, the truth may become painful. In the end, it always prevails. Truth is what is it. It does not rely upon numbers. It only relies upon fact. Truth is strength. Truth is integrity. Truth is life. Truth is everything. Without truth, life is meaningless. This is truth. [/QUOTE] Your blog. Post #76. Post #77. Perhaps you’d like to add a line-something like,“The Truth can bite you on the ass sometimes.” ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2007, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-walks-into-a-bar/390522/83 "2007-02-03T20:09:03Z")
[QUOTE=brentroos] You may hate Bush or think he’s a bad president, although he has gotten a lot done. Another guy who you probably like, didn’t do nearly as much, other than lie and take credit for the work of others, receive BJs from women other than his wife, and lied about it to her, his daughter, a Grand Jury, and the entire nation. This is only one example of the many stupid things he did, like refuse to capture bin Laden (two times), when given the chance. I wonder if 9/11 would have still happened if he was actually captured. Who knows? It’s too easy to speculate. I won’t ever do that. [/QUOTE] Funny how 3200 American soldiers didn’t die for no reason on his watch. Or several hundred thousand Iraqis. Funny, too, how you repeat the same old false stories about Clinton and bin Laden that every right-wing talking-point-repeating pundit and blogger has been repeating since roughly the time the 9/11 Commission’s report came out in an attempt to make it look like the events of 9/11 happened because of something Clinton didn’t do, instead of many (MANY) things Bush didn’t do. If you’re going to come here and simply repeat the lies and half-truths that the Right Wing Echo Chamber and Faux News have been parroting for several years now, this won’t end well. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2007, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-walks-into-a-bar/390522/84 "2007-02-03T20:11:22Z")
[QUOTE=brentroos] It may be photoshoped. But I am not responsible for this, since I don’t even know how to do that. It could have been any picture. I chose that one, because of the song’s lyrics that I included. It wasn’t a statement. It’s called HUMOR! I thought it is a cool picture of Obama. It’s not meant to be an insult to him. It is a parody of Joe Biden’s foot-in-mouth statement about Obama. I’m sorry that you lack a sense of humor, but I tend to see this pattern amongst those of your particular ilk (angry liberals). Lighten up dude. And I am not trying to pass something off as real or not. The thought never even crossed my brain. It was a fun post, as the “humor” tag underneath it suggests. It’s satire, no different that what you would find on the Onion. Again, lighten up. I’m not interested in arguing politics with you. My time here is almost up, because I am running out of the ambition to continue the nonsense. If you want to comment about my blog, I won’t do it here anymore. You can come to my blog to comment on it if you want. This is not the place to do it. [/QUOTE] I fully understand this type of “humor”. You post anything that will damage your opponent, and if you get caught in an outright lie, you claim that you were “joking”. Hey, we Evil Dems listen to Rush occasionally, too. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-walks-into-a-bar/390522.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-walks-into-a-bar/390522.md?page=5)