The Scandal That Brings Down President Obama?

Andy Borowitz raises the hard questions about the developing crisis.

Author: Keith Humphreys

Keith Humphreys is the Esther Ting Memorial Professor of Psychiatry at Stanford University and an Honorary Professor of Psychiatry at Kings College London. His research, teaching and writing have focused on addictive disorders, self-help organizations (e.g., breast cancer support groups, Alcoholics Anonymous), evaluation research methods, and public policy related to health care, mental illness, veterans, drugs, crime and correctional systems. Professor Humphreys' over 300 scholarly articles, monographs and books have been cited over thirteen thousand times by scientific colleagues. He is a regular contributor to Washington Post and has also written for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Monthly, San Francisco Chronicle, The Guardian (UK), The Telegraph (UK), Times Higher Education (UK), Crossbow (UK) and other media outlets.

18 thoughts on “The Scandal That Brings Down President Obama?”

        1. This is roughly the third time in as many months I’ve encountered someone who didn’t know that the Borowitz Report was satire.

    1. It is a sad day when rational people can’t tell knee slapping satire from real quotes from “serious” political players. And it’s not your fault. The only reason I knew was because I’m familiar with The Borowitz Report. Rand Paul could say he believes the moon is made of cheese and it would be just another day in american right-wing lunacy.

      1. I mean, that’s it: I can’t tell anymore what’s real coming from the Right and what’s satire. There’s a law about that.
        But it goes further than the pols. Down below, we’ve got Brett saying that MD’s are an unlimited resource, and implying that this will always be teh case. Really?
        Sad.

        1. No, we’ve got Brett arguing that they’re not a fixed resource. Actually, given they’re people, I object to characterizing them as “resources” at all, but they’re not fixed in number, whatever you want to call them.

  1. Borowitz was really on his game with this one.

    It’s so hard to parody the already-absurd, as evidenced by John’s uncertainty over whether or not it was serious. With all the attention still being paid to the lip-sync “scandal”, and following yesterday’s Benghazi hearings, it’s impossible to blame anyone for not immediately recognizing the satire.

    1. Agreed. When Limbaugh says that Obama is not going to relinquish the Oval Office after his term expires, and that his followers will find a way to keep him in office after 2016, and that he might have run off to have a quickie with his mistress when attending his daughter’s soccer game, you really cannot be sure that anything is satire.

      1. I feel the same way when Democrats insist that Obama hasn’t had any scandals. 😉 But satire has been dead in American politics for a decade or more.

        1. I doubt you feel the same way. The crazies on the left simply can’t compare, either in number, voracity, or party prominence.

  2. Obviously this was satire, but if I were Beyonce I would have wanted to own that moment. Maybe she and Kelly Clarkson should have traded songs.

  3. Well. Freaking out over a song is one thing, but why didn’t they just move the date of the inauguration up, so that the president could take the oath *once,* for real? I understand people don’t like to do these things on a Sunday; fine. But what was wrong with the Saturday then, or the Friday, or the Thursday? What, is it not considered *important* enough?

    It would be nice if we could avoid fakeness to the extent possible. If you’ve already sworn something, isn’t the second one fake?

    1. The 20th Amendment says the president’s term ends Jan 20. So the real swearing in had to be done then. I could be wrong, but I think the NFL playoffs were still in play on Sunday, which, of course, trumps EVERYTHING. Anyway, I thought having the ceremony on MLK day was pretty sweet.

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