It was not the actor The Rock, but rather the subject of his now famous "Saturday Night Live" skits President Barack Obama who joined Vice President Joe Biden along with other members of his inner circle to watch the Georgetown Hoyas upset the visiting Duke University Blue Devils at the Verizon Center in Washington, DC, by a 89-77 score this afternoon.
When the game tipped off at 1:00 p.m. eastern time, the DC area did not yet see the incoming snowstorm which had hit much of Virginia and North Carolina (see our entry in The Daily Vampire) including the Duke U campus in Durham, NC.
During the second half, Obama made a surprise visit to the CBS booth where he joked with announcer Clark Kelogg, who was once a Big Ten basketball star, that he might have to replace Kelogg in 'three years or seven years.' Some conservative-leaning media outlets are already making the highly ridicilous suggestion that Obama was hinting that he might not seek reelection.
When the announcers asked if the left-handed Obama ever went to his right, the president again jovially said that he went to his 'right' when he met with Congressional Republicans in Baltimore on Friday.
The Baltimore gathering provided a limelight moment for Cong. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), a congressional freshman who represents the Provo, Utah, region-considered by many to be one of the most conservative areas in America.
Lee Davidson of "The Deseret News" in Salt Lake City reported that Chaffetz confronted the president for a number of verbal inconsistencies including a pledge to hold health care hearings in the public arena through C-Span.
Obama responded by telling Chaffetz that:
"That (the hearings) was a messy process. And I take responsibility for not having structured it in a way where it was taking place in one place where it could not be filmed."
Chaffetz told the SLC newspaper that he had a friendly talk with Obama afterwards:
"I think it's positive that we are able to have this kind of dialogue and hopefully move forward."
On his Twitter page, Chaffetz has voiced many political objections to the Obama administration. In one tweet, he said that he was opposed to the discontinuation of the 'don't ask, don't tell policy' regarding gays and lesbians in the military on the grounds that such measures should not be taken when the United States is involved with two wars.
As for Obama, he also met with former president George HW Bush and former Florida govenror Jeb Bush at the White House prior to the Hoyas-Blue Devils basketball game.
NPR said Obama was blackberrying throughout the game, and that he made no indication of which team he was rooting for.
It would have been interesting to hear comments from Duke's Coach K after the game. The long-time Blue Devils coach is a Republican though he is not known to use his position for campaign trail purposes (his long-time rival former UNC coach Dean Smith is a Democrat who vocally endorsed Obama in the North Carolina Primary), but one of the Duke coach's former players is a staff member for President Obama.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment