Did Scarborough question Obama’s manhood?

posted at 12:17 pm on April 1, 2008 by Ed Morrissey
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We have the Outrage du Jour from our friends at Media Matters today. Joe Scarborough referred to Obama’s bowling as his “prissy side”, which sent the Left into a tizzy. Take a look at the video and see if you can catch the subtext in this exchange with former Tennessee state legislator Harold Ford:

During the March 31 edition of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Willie Geist repeatedly mocked Sen. Barack Obama’s bowling performance — which Scarborough called “dainty” — at a March 29 campaign stop at Pleasant Valley Lanes in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Deriding Obama’s score, he said: “You know Willie, the thing is, Americans want their president, if it’s a man, to be a real man.” Scarborough added, “You get 150, you’re a man, or a good woman,” to which Geist replied, “Out of my president, I want a 150, at least.”

Later in the show, after NBC political analyst Harold Ford Jr. said that Obama’s bowling showed a “humble” and “human” side to him, Scarborough replied, “A very human side? A prissy side.” Ford asserted that Obama, who reportedly plays pick-up basketball, is a “heck of an athlete.” Later, Scarborough acknowledged: “I’ll challenge him to a bowl-off. But basketball — he looks like he’s in pretty good shape. I would just have to post low.” Switching to football, Ford also said to Scarborough: “I’d throw him a pass on you, too. I’ve seen you. I think he could probably take you down the sideline on a post route.”

Believe it or not, Media Matters goes into great detail as to whether MS-NBC misrepresented how many frames Obama bowled to get the 37. Scarborough and company say 10, while the scoresheet apparently indicated seven. This inaccuracy somehow accounts for the low score Obama achived as the extra three frames would have produced a score of 55 had Obama maintained his scoring rate from the other seven.

Jazz Shaw take is a lot more entertaining than Media Matters:

As we all know, competent bowling is a legal requirement for all real Americans. In fact 37 of the 50 states in our country require all citizens to bowl at least four times per year and achieve an average score of 80 or face severe tax penalties and or prison terms. This horrid performance clearly shows that Mr. Obama has been remiss in his legally mandated bowling requirements. The always calm, thoughtful, fair and completely nonpartisan Joe Scarborough was shocked – SHOCKED, I say! – and quickly reminded America of the constitutionally mandated minimum bowling skills for anyone seeking a seat in the Oval Office. …

I don’t think we need any remedial courses in secret code language for that, now do we? Prissy! Dainty I say! Look… as if it wasn’t bad enough that Obama doesn’t wear the requisite number of American flag lapel pins, but now we find out that he’s a lisping pooftah to boot?

Why did Scarborough spend so much time on Obama’s bowling game? Maybe he didn’t have anything better to discuss with Ford or Geist. Scarborough stopped offering anything trenchant years ago. Even at that, Scarborough’s clearly not making a serious point here, offering a joke about the seriousness in which people take these events. Media Matters just goes way out of their way to prove it.

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