Meaty matters? Barack Obama ate dog
Anybody who has gotten as far as chapter two of Barack Obama’s book, “Dreams From My Father,” knows that, as a child living in Indonesia, he ate some dog meat.
But now a Republican pundit — tired of Mitt Romney being bashed for taking his dog for a 12-hour ride on the roof of his car — has seized upon what he sees as a juicy nugget from Obama’s memoirs to fight back.
(That’s the thing about memoirs, anything you say in them can and will be used against you.)
“Say what you want about Romney, but at least he only put a dog on the roof of his car, not the roof of his mouth,” conservative blogger Jim Treacher writes in his column for the Daily Caller, DC Trawler.
In a further warning to “libs,” Treacher, with all the emotional maturity of a third grader, adds: “And whenever you bring up the one, we’re going to bring up the other.”
In the book, Obama, referring to his time living with his stepfather, Lolo Soetoro in Indonesia, writes:
“With Lolo, I learned how to eat small green chill peppers raw with dinner (plenty of rice), and, away from the dinner table, I was introduced to dog meat (tough), snake meat (tougher), and roasted grasshopper (crunchy). Like many Indonesians, Lolo followed a brand of Islam that could make room for the remnants of more ancient animist and Hindu faiths. He explained that a man took on the powers of whatever he ate: One day soon, he promised, he would bring home a piece of tiger meat for us to share.”
Obama was about seven and living in a different culture when he ate what everybody else was eating. Romney was an adult, with children, when he strapped his Irish setter, Seamus, in a crate, to the car roof for a 12-hour ride to Canada.
One wouldn’t expect a seven-year-old, being raised in an environment where eating dog is culturally acceptable among some, to take a stand against the practice any more than one would expect one of Romney’s children to stand up and say, “Dad, this is stupid and wrong, don’t do it.”
It’s not like Obama went out and killed, skinned, gutted and grilled a neighborhood dog — as Romney supporter and fund raiser Fred Malek was once accused of doing (before the charges were dropped against all but one of the friends with whom he was partying at the time). Cultural differences being what they are, eating dog in Pusan is one thing, eating dog in Peoria is quite another.
Repulsive as I find eating dogs, disgusted as I was seeing them caged, sold and butchered to order on the streets of South Korea, I kept reminding myself when I was there that I was visiting another culture.
A small and declining minority of the population still eats farm-raised dog meat. I would like them to stop doing that. But, last time I checked, I wasn’t in charge of dictating the customs of foreign lands. And I don’t think every seven year old in Seoul who eats what their parents put in front of them is evil.
As political ammo goes, Treacher is shooting blanks.
(Top graphic: rightwingnews.com)
Posted by jwoestendiek April 18th, 2012 under Muttsblog.
Tags: animals, asia, asian, barack obama, blog, campaign, car, conservative, crate, cultures, customs, daily caller, dc trawler, dog eating, dogs, dogs against romney, dreams from my father, eating dog, fred malek, indonesia, irish setter, jim treacher, mitt romney, obama, obama ate dog, pets, presidential, republican, ride, right wing, roof, seamus, south korea
Comments
Comment from Vierotchka
Time April 18, 2012 at 10:13 am
George Herbert Walker Bush ate “aromatic meats” when he was in China. “Aromatic meats” consist of dog lips. Dubya also ate dog meat when he was in China. So frankly, the fact that when he was only a child and living in Indonesia, Obama ate local food that included dog meat is really no big deal at all.
Comment from KateH
Time April 18, 2012 at 10:19 am
Jim Treacher – a childish response to this blog…you can’t come up with anything better? ‘Not impressed by you or the clueless jerk you support.
Comment from n8whit
Time April 18, 2012 at 11:06 am
How many people let their dog ride in the back of a pick up truck? Or when your pooch is in your car, the dog keeps his head out the window because they love it? The only reason the dog puked was it ate the turkey at Thanksgiving! Dogs almost always vomit after eating turkey! Obama ate a freaking dog! Let’s be fair!
Comment from Trish
Time April 18, 2012 at 12:32 pm
The point is that Obama not only ate dogs as a youth – that we know of so far – but that he also relished in retelling this story in his book as an adult!!!
Comment from bob
Time April 18, 2012 at 1:05 pm
So now we have one Republican president, Bush, and one Democrat president, Obama eating dogs, one Republican presidential candidate, Romney, having his dog on top of a car, and one Democrat president, Clinton, having his dog under a car (Buddy got run over).
So, now can we get to the issues of the campaign?
Comment from Hope Bo Has Secret Service
Time April 18, 2012 at 1:25 pm
That’s the problem with Libs… if it wasn’t for “no standards”, they’d have no standards at all.
Comment from A Corgi from CA
Time April 18, 2012 at 2:03 pm
Obama is making my people poor…… Hope my people don’t eat me cause it becomes culturally accepted after they and all americans are too poor to afford the trillion dollar debt Obama has put them in.
ABO in November
-Woof
Comment from Anne’n'Spencer
Time April 18, 2012 at 2:29 pm
Well, John, I know you are tough and have a great deal of intestinal fortitude. It is a good thing. I suspect you have drawn the ire of the Limburger crowd, and they will give us no further peace. Their candidate can’t come up with a winning strategy on the subject of women and children, so there’s not much hope he’ll be able to come up with one on the subject of dogs. They’re all grasping at straws, and they’ll probably have a field day with the dog meat issue. Discussing it with them is futile because they haven’t got any sense.
Comment from jeff
Time April 18, 2012 at 6:57 pm
This all seems like an odd form of political attack for both sides.
Romney treated a dog in a fashion that was not unusual at the time and place.
Obama at a dog in a fashion that was not unusual at the time and place.
The Romney attach was intended to portray him as unlikable, to some degree, and it worked.
The Obama attack was intended to portray him as unlikable, to some degree, and… well, I think it’s going to work.
That Mr. Woestendiek brought up the Romney/Seamus issue seems appropriate concerning the intent and focus of his blog and book. His coverage of that seemed fair and evenhanded, addressing the issue at hand.
But I don’t see his defense of Obama as the same. It seems openly partisan, which is a shame. Now I have to filter his blog through the Left/Right Noise Machine and I think it that detracts significantly from the sharpness of this blog.
Comment from Pinko
Time April 18, 2012 at 8:09 pm
obama ate a dog. -fact
Comment from Karen Thomas
Time April 18, 2012 at 8:20 pm
We eat cattle, sheep, chicken, etc. Why not dog. Why is one animal better or worse than another.
Comment from Andrew
Time April 18, 2012 at 10:07 pm
so i guess Karen Thomas is all for eating dogs
Comment from Andrew
Time April 18, 2012 at 10:09 pm
in 2011 obama also sign a bill allowing for the slaughter of horses for human consumption
Comment from Andrew
Time April 18, 2012 at 10:11 pm
this is why we need a president that is american, not questionably born in america and lived most of his life in other countries.
Comment from Andrew
Time April 18, 2012 at 10:13 pm
my parents tried to give me shrimp to eat when i was 6 years old and i refused it, obama could have done the same. NOBODY FORCED IT DOWN HIS THROAT
Comment from KateH
Time April 18, 2012 at 11:38 pm
John, I am impressed with your tolerance. I’d delete these morons so fast, their pinheads would spin.
Comment from man form newport
Time April 18, 2012 at 11:44 pm
this proves he was not born in the USA
Comment from Mitch
Time April 19, 2012 at 6:41 am
@ Andrew:
“this is why we need a president that is american, not questionably born in america and lived most of his life in other countries.”
Yeah, because nothing could be worse than having a President who once ate dog meat as a child. That is clearly the worst thing anyone could possibly do, ever, in the world, ever.
Get some perspective, buddy.
Comment from AK
Time April 19, 2012 at 12:45 pm
Say what you want about culture or Obama’s age at the time. The bottom line is that BARACK OBAMA ATE A DOG.
That’s messed up. He’s a weirdo.
Comment from AK
Time April 19, 2012 at 12:46 pm
Obama’s in for an awkward reunion at the Rainbow Bridge…
Comment from MARK
Time April 20, 2012 at 7:37 am
@ MITCH. YEA AHOLE , IT IS ONE OF THE WORST THINGS. BUT YOU’D PROBABLY EAT YOUR SISTER IF YOU COULD. AND THIS CHUMP OBAMO ISN’T EVEN SORRY ABOUT HIS SICKNESS. WHATS THE POINT, YOU SICKOS DEFENDING THIS HAVE NO HEART, THERES NO WAY TO CONVINCE YA. BLOW AND TED NUGENT.
Comment from Chang
Time May 13, 2012 at 3:22 pm
For those of you who meat and buy animal-tested products, which is the end-result of millions of sentient animals who are tortured and/or killed every year, you have no reason to look down on Obama for eating dog meat. There is no rational explanation for why subjecting one set of animals (namely pigs who are smarter than dogs, cows, chickens, lambs ..) to torture and/or killing is more acceptable than subjecting another set (our animal companions). Whether or not you’re a vegetarian, Obama’s meat-eating habits are not worsened by his having eaten dog meat.
As for Obama’s cocaine experience, how can you compare a young man’s personal hard drug experience to another young man’s gang-leader bullying of person on the sole ground of his sexual orientation?
Comment from Jim Treacher
Time April 18, 2012 at 9:42 am
Then you have nothing to worry about.