A Bryant Park Hotel doorman who became the poster child for Barack Obama‘s upstart New York campaign has been canned – for not addressing an undercover guest by name, he told The Post.
In its quest to be ranked a five-star hotel, the Bryant Park requires its doormen to introduce themselves, usher guests to the check-in counter, learn their names and use them.
Gregory Smith, a married father of two, said he helped the “secret guest” check in and carried her luggage upstairs while chatting about her kids.
But he said that he was suspended after arguing with his boss about the incident and that when he returned two days later, on Sept. 28, he was fired for insubordination and such tacked-on infractions as tardiness.
Smith, 43, had spent the previous day with Obama.
“I saw him at the rally at Washington Square Park” he said, adding that he was targeted at work after The Post profiled him as an Obama supporter in Hillary Clinton’s backyard.
“Some people . . . had issues,” he said. “. . . They’d say, ‘Why is it some lowly door guy that they come and ask but not me?’ ”
He’s speaking out, he said, only after learning last week that he was ineligible for unemployment-insurance benefits because the hotel claimed he was fired for misconduct.
A hotel spokeswoman said the “termination was work related and not politically motivated.”
Obama’s campaign did not respond to calls.
jfanelli@nypost.com