Say what you will about President George W. Bush, but I don't recall him ever mocking an elderly widow in his pronouncements. But Barack Obama couldn't get through his first press conference as president-elect without doing just that.
Answering a question from Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun-Times as to the presidents he has consulted during the transition, Obama took a gratuitous jab at Nancy Reagan, who was recently released from the hospital after breaking her pelvis in a fall.
BARACK OBAMA: In terms of speaking to former presidents, I've spoken to all of them that are living, obviously President Clinton--I didn't want to get into a Nancy Reagan thing about, you know, doing any séances.
View video here.
Very droll. As NewsMax has pointed out, Obama couldn't even get his insult straight. It was First Lady Hillary Clinton who admitted to having conducted a séance in which she summoned the spirit of Eleanor Roosevelt. Mrs. Reagan consulted an astrologist after Pres. Reagan was shot.
WaPo's Chris Cillizza noted the remark in his column for purposes of predicting it was "sure to set the conservative blogs afire." Glad to oblige. But would the MSM be so reserved in its reaction were the political tables turned?
Update: Obama Apologizes
He called his remark "careless." I'd call it heartless.
