Obamateurism of the Day

I can’t let this week pass without adding to the OOTD canon Barack Obama’s decision to shut down part of Disney World to promote tourism and his economic policies.   It practically begs for satirical response, and the presidential candidates certainly answered that call yesterday.  The obvious connections to Fantasyland, Goofy, and Mickey Mouse aside, the “Main Street” venue is not just unworkable, it’s, well, pretty obviously fake, too.  Even if the optics didn’t look terribly staged, the event itself was.  Obama didn’t mix with the hoi polloi on vacation, but brought in his own adoring crowd to stage the town hall — and in order to do that, Disney had to close the park:

And what better place for a campaigning president to go lecture needlessly on improving tourism than the iconic institution that figured it all out decades ago, Walt Disney Resorts?

But here’s the problem with Obama going to Disney’s Main Street: They have to halt all tourism there for him to be seen encouraging more tourism, close the whole place down to tourists for much of the day while he’s there and before. Even Disney employees are being barred.

So, Main Street won’t look anything like the photo above. And the thousands of existing tourists who expected to spend a valuable vacation day strolling the old-fashioned shops for fudge and Mickey ears, riding the steam-powered cars and horse-drawn streetcars and getting a photo with the real Snow White today are just plum out of luck, like Grumpy. …

Later, after the president’s entourage and motorcade depart the wonderful world of Disney following their private photo op visit, they’ll likely re-open the magical street to the tourists he was talking about getting more of. After how much lost business?

Apparently, we have to kill Main Street to save Main Street.  That’s a pretty goofy idea all on its own.

Got an Obamateurism of the Day? If you see a foul-up by Barack Obama, e-mail it to me at [email protected] with the quote and the link to the Obamateurism. I’ll post the best Obamateurisms on a daily basis, depending on how many I receive. Include a link to your blog, and I’ll give some link love as well. And unlike Slate, I promise to end the feature when Barack Obama leaves office.

Illustrations by Chris Muir of Day by Day. Be sure to read the adventures of Sam, Zed, Damon, and Jan every day!