LiveWire

Maynard says:

So what’s the rule here? Certain classes of working people get banned for life for expressing certain opinions in certain venues regarding certain politicians? I’m sensing another complex agenda-driven standard of intimidating political correctness being formulated here.

I think the fury against the rodeo clown is driven by Obama’s concern that he be perceived as a champion of the working class. When the rest of us see that everyday people like Joe the Plumber or Joe the Clown understand Obama is hurting rather than helping them, we may question the president’s narrative. That’s why it’s so vital to destroy such people and intimidate the rest of us. Do you really want to risk being fired from your gig, and chastised and told you’re unemployable in this venue? How’s this guy going to find work in the Obama economy? At least he can get food stamps. Which shows how Obama tempers his wrath with mercy.

From Peggy Noonan’s blog:

…why people wind up making fun of the president at state fairs. (On that, everyone should breathe deep and remember, as the noted political philosopher Orson Welles once put it: “It’s the business of the American people to take the mickey out of the president.” It’s not only what we do, it’s what we should do. Welles was speaking on a talk show; it was the 1970s; he was talking about people making fun of some Republican president, Nixon or Ford. So what? They can take it. And they’re not kings. Let me suggest a classy Obama move that might go over well. From his Vineyard vacation spot he should have the press office issue a release saying his reaction to finding out a rodeo clown was rudely spoofing him, was, “So what?” Say he loves free speech, including inevitably derision directed at him, and he does not wish for the Missouri state fair to fire the guy, and hopes those politicians (unctuously, excessively, embarrassingly) damning the clown and the crowd would pipe down and relax. This would be graceful and nice, wouldn’t it? He would never do it. He gives every sign of being a person who really believes he shouldn’t be made fun of, and if he is it’s probably racially toned, because why else would you make fun of him?

Noonan’s prediction is of course correct. The actual White House reaction:

White House spokesman Josh Earnest says he had no reaction from Obama. But he says that personally, as a native of Missouri, “It was certainly not one of the finer moments in our state.”

And the bumper stickers are coming.

This is all a very fine distraction from our serious problems and government scandals.