Ben Smith passed along an anecdote in the Politco Playbook this morning that is apparently considered news by some people:
FIRST LOOK – Rolling Stone cover, “Obama and the Road Ahead: The Rolling Stone Interview,” by Douglas Brinkley: “We arrived at the Oval Office for our 45-minute interview … on the morning of October 11th. … As we left the Oval Office, executive editor Eric Bates told Obama that he had asked his six-year-old if there was anything she wanted him to say to the president. … [S]he said, ‘Tell him: You can do it.’ Obama grinned. … ‘You know, kids have good instincts,’ Obama offered. ‘They look at the other guy and say, “Well, that’s a bullshitter, I can tell.”‘”
The comment even made it into onto the campaign trail:
RICHMOND, Va — After President Barack Obama reportedly suggested during an interview with Rolling Stone Magazine that Republican challenger Mitt Romney was “a bull—–er,” adviser Dan Pfeiffer said his comment points to underlying “trust” issues with Romney.
“What is true is that trust is a very important part of the election,” Pfeiffer, who said he had not yet seen the article, told reporters during Obama’s campaign swing through Florida, Virginia and Ohio Thursday. “The president is someone who says what he means and does what he says and Gov. Romney’s answers in the debates on domestic issues and foreign policy raise real questions about that.”
In a forthcoming article in Rolling Stone, Obama reportedly told author Douglas Brinkley that children can instinctively tell that his opponent is “a bull—–er.” Politico published an excerpt Thursday morning.
David Weigel points out that this isn’t the first time we’ve seen some off color language on the campaign trail:
The late-game presidential cuss word is a factor with some precedent. In the last week of the 1968 campaign, Richard Nixon slipped and said that the campaign was “getting down to the nut-cutting.” In 2000, most famously, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney were unaware that a mic was picking up their conversation about New York Times reporter Adam Clymer. “Major league asshole,” said Bush. “Big time,” said Cheney. And Politifact wasn’t even around to discuss whether this was true.
And, hey, look! Both Nixon and Bush won close elections.
Indeed they did. I mean, we already knew that Obama didn’t really like Romney very much. Is anyone really surprised that he referred to him like this?
