Talk about distractions!
Here’s President Obama lounging on a sofa next to a beaming Oprah Winfrey during a taping for her TV show yesterday — just hours after he sought to quell the controversy over his birth certificate, saying, “We’ve got better stuff to do.”
Obama wasn’t kidding when he said he didn’t have time for distractions from birthers and their champion, Donald Trump.
After his White House appearance, with birth certificate in tow, the president and the first lady jetted to Chicago and schmoozed with Winfrey during a taping of her final talk show. After that, it was on to New York for a series of campaign fund-raisers last night.
“We’re not going to be able to solve our problems if we get distracted by sideshows and carnival barkers,” Obama said in a surprise statement at the White House.
“We do not have time for this kind of silliness. We’ve got better stuff to do,” he continued.
But it wasn’t a massive budget deficit, the soaring price of gasoline or an anemic economic recovery that was tops on the president’s agenda yesterday. Instead, he was tied up with celebrity hobnobbing and glitzy fund-raising.
Obama, appearing at a fund-raiser last night at the Upper East Side home of Jon Corzine, the former New Jersey governor, alluded to the birther issue, which has energized his Democratic base.
“Nobody checked my ID at the door,” Obama quipped.
Then, at a Town Hall event, the president deadpanned: “My name is Barack Obama. I was born in Hawaii.”
His birther talk also overshadowed news that he tapped Leon Panetta as his new defense secretary and Gen. David Petreaus as the next CIA director.
“It’s kind of silly to me. Obama stepped on his own message. He’s in full campaign mode,” said Republican consultant Ed Rollins.
Rollins also said Obama handed a victory to Donald Trump, who pushed the issue.
“He’s now playing Trump’s game, not his own game,” Rollins said.
Last night was Obama’s third trip to the Big Apple in less than a month to raise campaign cash. In addition to the Corzine bash, he was at an event at The Waldorf-Astoria attended by 400 donors. About 1,300 mostly younger contributors showed up at Town Hall, where The Roots performed.