If you think about it, the Washington Post’s Nelson Pressley went to his bosses and said “hey, I have this idea on Trump and the pardons and how utterly horrible it was” and they said “run with it.” In the lifestyle section. Not even in the opinion section. And we end up with
Trump’s presidential turkey pardon felt like a reality show meets absurdist theater
In theater, the definition of a “turkey†is a disaster that can’t be saved. Does that apply to the perpetually peculiar presidential Thanksgiving turkey pardoning? Can Donald Trump do whimsy?
Performing America’s pre-dinner theater demands it, topped with a dollop of sincerity. Weird as it is, there is reassurance in routine — as travel and grocery shopping logistics pile up, you sort of want to glance at this novelty act and hear healing words just a moment — and on Tuesday in the Rose Garden, the president played the role of hardball politician softening for the week’s holiday pretty much by the book. He joshed about the annual event’s brand-new “reality show†wrinkle of public voting between two turkeys named Peas and Carrots to see which one gets, you might say, the embrace.
“The winner of this vote was decided by a fair and open election conducted on the White House website,†the president announced as the first lady looked on. “This was a fair election. Unfortunately, Carrots refused to concede and demanded a recount, and we’re still fighting with Carrots.â€
Democrats might not honor these pardons, Trump warned. Watch out for a reversal by that dastardly Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, he said, as another court was reversing his administration’s asylum policy.
This elbow in the ribs had a sharp Trumpian edge but fits within the established script for turkey pardoning, which, in this 2018 edition, lasted a fleet eight minutes. Beltway quips, some earnest platitudes (“All joking aside, this is a time for Americans to unite together in a spirit of love, understanding, unity and joy as one very proud American familyâ€), then the main course. “I hereby grant you a full pardon,†the president said, stepping toward the turkey named Peas as the assembled crowd dutifully laughed.
No, the article never takes an really sharp jabs at Trump, but the very fact that it was written, that the whole pardoning turkeys thing is apparently a silly farce, that online voting on the turkeys, which included a background on Peas and Carrots, just shows how deranged Trump makes liberals. Does anyone remember articles quietly slapping Obama over pardoning turkeys?
“Extremely lucky birds,†Trump noted.
All this taps into the something deeply loony that hangs on Thanksgiving’s beak like a snood. Thanksgiving inspired the legendary “WKRP in Cincinnati†episode “Turkeys Away,†with the radio station promoting itself by generously dropping free live turkeys onto startled Ohioans from a helicopter. Thanksgiving gave us the brilliantly daffy “Turkey Lurkey Time†dance in the 1969 musical “Promises, Promises†(thank you, Donna McKechnie), plus a thread in “West Wing†when President Bartlett wondered if pardoning birds would make him seem “soft on turkeys.â€
Humourless scold. Even the small things drive liberals over the edge.
You’re a carrier of TVS (Trump Victim Syndrome)… America is mean to Trump! Or maybe it’s TSS, Trump Sensitivity Syndrome.
Anyway, conservative media noted President Obama pardoning turkeys.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2016/11/23/obama-pardons-turkey-tells-americans-thankful-obamacare/
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/nov/29/obama-daughters-outrage-gop-staffer-sparks-backlas/
Right on cue the nignorant angry little black child from St. Louis proves the Captain’s point.
LOL.
No, America is very good to The Donald. And he is clearly capable of kicking the Lefties’ asses all by himself.
Americans just won’t tolerate Lefty lies.
Humourless? Here in America, we spell it humorless. Do you favor ‘favour’. Is you language colored with ‘colour’? Or flavored with ‘flavour’?
If not America, where are you really from Porter? Kenya?
Is this why Con Men are so humorless? You can’t even spell it? LOL.
Cons never laugh at a clever joke but always laugh if an old lady tumbles down the stairs.
Projecting again, sweetie?
Conservatives have a great sense of humor. You’re the biggest laugh around the old place.
Seems you’re the only humorless joke that’s laughed at here along with the occasional eye roll.
And “clever”… LOL.
Oh, good grief, Jeff. Interestingly, WordPress tags humorless as misspelled.
Also interestingly, WordPress tags “WordPress” as misspelled.
And what’s with the Kenya bit? Sounds kinda racist on your part.
Pourter asks: Does anyone remember articles quietly slapping Obama over pardoning turkeys?
Yet you also type: the article never takes an (sic) really sharp jabs at Trump,
Besides the articles we linked, there are hundreds more, if you had bothered to look.
You have a severe case of Trump Sensitivity Syndrome (TSS): n: The uncontrollable neurotic obsession with perceiving every mention of Donald J. Trump as a liberal/educated attempt to smear him.
Pourter typed: No, the article never takes an (sic) really sharp jabs at Trump, but the very fact that it was written, that the whole pardoning turkeys thing is apparently a silly farce, that online voting on the turkeys, which included a background on Peas and Carrots, just shows how deranged Trump makes liberals.
These sorts of articles and media stories are ALWAYS created EVERY Thanksgiving. Of course it’s a silly tradition. In 2015 the Con media attacked President Obama’s daughters for their clothing and their apparent boredom with their father’s pardon of Honest and Abe.
Anyway, at the 2015 ceremony, President Obama said, among other things:
“I can announce that the American people have spoken, and we have two winners,” he said. “Their names are Honest and Abe — I confess that Honest looks like good eating, but this is a democracy.”
With daughters Malia and Sasha at his side, Obama declared that “Abe is now a free bird” and will now be designated “TOTUS — the Turkey of the United States.”
and that “Honest will be held in an “undisclosed location,” ready to step in if “Abe can’t fulfill his duties to walk around and gobble all day.”
Obama pointed out that this was his seventh turkey pardoning as president.
“Time flies,” he said. “Even though turkeys don’t.”
As the crowd chuckled. Obama said: “I thought it was good. You think it’s funny too, don’t you?”
Also: “I know some folks think this tradition is a little silly. I do not disagree.”
It’s youse guys who are humourless (sic).
Methinks he doth protest too much. After all, the days of Trump pardoning turkeys, especially if the vote Demo, may soon end.
Of course the Progressives were upset; the turkeys were white. Naturally colored [coloured] turkeys would have been another story. The “priviledged” white birds always get special treatment by President Trump, or so say the corruptocrats.