Controversy: Obama Prefers Dijon to Ketchup
Obama’s Dijon Burger Triggers Conservative Media's Outrage
Barack Obama and his dietary preferences are big news these days. Recently, the public learned of the President’s fondness for arugula and dislike of beets.
CBS News videocameras captured the President and VP Joe Biden visiting Ray’s Burgers in Arlington, Virginia yesterday. President Obama ordered “your basic cheddar cheeseburger, medium well,” and continued with his choice of condiments,. “I just want mustard, no ketchup, ” said the President. But Obama didn’t want just any mustard. He wanted “spicy mustard,” like “Dijon.”
Dijongate: Conservative Media Uproar
The videotape had barely stopped rolling before the conservative media firestorm erupted. It's being called, predictably, "Dijongate." Barack's choice was, according to right-wing pundits, an affront to "regular Americans. It was not "of the people."
FOX News intercut the burger-joint video clip with a well-known 1980s TV ad depicting an upper-crust Frenchman looking for some Grey Poupon mustard. Host Sean Hannity referred to the mustard as a "very special condiment," and intoned: “I hope you enjoyed that fancy burger, Mr. President.”
Radio talk-show host and consistent Obama critic Laura Ingraham inflamed her listening audience by saying, “I don’t even like the way the man orders a hamburger… What kind of man orders a cheeseburger without ketchup, but Dijon mustard?”
Ingraham embarked on a minutes-long monologue about how President Obama was trying to present himself and Joe Biden as two regular guys on their lunch break – “two bros hangin’ out” – but blew it because, says Ingraham, regular guys like ketchup.
Dijon Equals Grey Poupon
British-accented Canadian commentator Mark Steyn spoke about the “incident” on the Rush Limbaugh Show. Steyn conflated the President's ordering a spicy-mustard cheeseburger with his being the spokesperson for Grey Poupon. “People were talking a lot about the Obama hamburger and this business about of him ordering the Dijon mustard… and ordering the Grey Poupon. And I have to say, speaking as a foreigner, that I deeply resent Barack Obama crashing in as the Grey Poupon spokesperson, because that has been a life-saver for non-American voice-over artists in this country for years… “
Obama's Policies Cut the Mustard
With President Barack Obama’s policies still enjoying a good measure of popular support, the conservative media and their chief mouthpieces have chosen the President's palate as grounds for criticism.
Their tone and the content of their criticism recall the efforts that were taken to portray Barack Obama as somehow “un-American” – or worse – during the 2008 presidential campaign. Those efforts proved pretty successful in certain circles, as demonstrated in the interviews with the McCain supporters waiting, on the sidewalk to nowhere, to enter a McCain/Palin rally.
Demographics indicate that what is represented by the term “the people” in America is changing; one need look no further than the President himself for proof of this.
Dijon Mustard
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