Is that $99.99 per pound, or for the entire ham?

It's interesting, watching the press starting to turn on him. It probably started with the bowling, and continued in MoDo's column, but they're now starting in on the effete, elitist, rich thing.

Because it's only important to note what Democrats pay for their haircuts and their houses and their sandwiches and their bikes. The press corps can go to McCain's luxury vacation home and call it a "cabin."

On the one hand, it smacks of the "expensive haircuts" malarkey.

On the other, the whole point of these hoi polloi camera ops is symbolism -- and the symbolism isn't very well chosen.

In any case, I can't help but wonder how that ham tastes with Dijon...

1. Woman dies for lack of $100 in E.R.

2. Obama samples $99.99 ham.

It's the old thing about cliches working because they touch on certain truths.

And in this case, it goes directly to universal health care.

[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.

I have no doubt that when Obama buys hundred-dollar ham... it's really for you.

(1) how much does obama pay for his haircut?

(2) does he live in an expensive house?

i'm really fascinated by people who justifiably complain about the awful coverage that clinton and edwards got from the press, and then clamor for the same awful coverage for obama. i thought the point of all this was to stop the rightwing press from shitting over democrats, not to get them to distribute the shit evenly among the democratic candidates.

This isn't the kind of media coverage we want to encourage.

... and not keep crawfishing on the mandates, which Elizabeth Edwards called bullshit on, and I won't draw contrasts between the price of Obama's ham, and what it can take to save a woman's life.

Eh?

[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.

and disgust.

It's hard as a Hillary supporter not to feel some thrill of pleasure to see Obama starting to get treated like a Democrat by the press. Welcome to the party, pal!

Did the OFB really think the knob-slobbing by the press would last forever? Johnny McStain is their true love, Barack was just a Spring fling.

But as a Democrat I'm disgusted to see the press once again acting like they are the kewl kidz and the Democrat is the unpopular nerd.

"I don't belong to any organized political party.
I'm a Democrat." - Will Rogers

That's what Hillary's been practically this whole campaign season. I never believed for a minute that this year would be any different, whoever the nominee.

I was just wondering exactly _when_ they'd get around to letting Obama have some, too. I guess they've decided he's getting the nomination. Do we actually have any power to discourage it? I don't know what you can do. Write an angry email? Please. And of course, the money raised in February by the two of them together ($90 mil) just goes to feed the beast some more. That's what I felt making my political contributions this year - why not just write a check to Viacom?

I'm feeling unusually alienated this year. You can't do anything in the face of $90 million a month. You just _can't_.

P.S.: Incidentally, the fact that Obama has been so willing throughout the campaign to ride the Mainstream-media Happy Republican fun ride to what he thought was a smooth finish, because he could fit through the tunnel they've dug these last 28 years, is probably the main reason I can't vote for him. Any Democrat who was genuinely transformative about politics in this country and was looking out for the future would decide he was too short for that ride.

Obama ran for the front car and held his hands in the air. Enjoy it, pal.

... Mitt Romney would be our king today.

[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.

is that McCain probably is serving that same ham and goat cheese to the lapdog reporters on the Bullshit Express and they are gobbling it up.

G-dub made sure that being part of the press pool following him around in 2000 and 2004 was like being on an all-inclusive luxury cruise.

Of course some corporation is picking up the tab, because since it's for the press it's not a campaign expenditure.

"I don't belong to any organized political party.
I'm a Democrat." - Will Rogers

treated that guy who wanted pics--he was an ass.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail... -- Persistent Picture-Seeker Irks Obama

I thought the pics guy was an ass.

That said, what I thought:

1. Obama's expression was exactly like what it was when he said "You're likable enough."

2. Obama said "You're wearing me out" or words to that effect. Kinda like "I already answered eight questions" on Rezko. He wears out fast, doesn't he?

[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.

And I'm not going all Wayne's World on you.

I'm with Susie.

First of all, I think it highly likely that the $100.00 price was for the whole ham. That still makes it expensive.

The report gives us no idea whether or not Obama is some sort of regular purchaser of said ham, and goat cheese is no longer an exotic import; some of the best artisnal goat cheese in the world is made in this country. It is a favorite meme of the SCLM that the entire movement around buying fresh, buying local, farmers markets, is an elitist movement, so why give energy to that simplification.

Most important, we have no idea how Obama came to sample what he sampled - for all we know, since he was sampling the market as part of a political campaign, Obama might have said something to the effect that he'd had Spanish ham and he liked it, and the sellar insisted that he hadn't ever tasted anything this THIS Spanish ham and he had to try it.

I'm a card-carrying member of the Slow Food Movement, and I have been before most people ever heard about it, but this snippet tells us nothing about Obama, about food, about politics, not even very much about that market. What it does tell us a lot about is everything we've ever critiqued about the SCLM.

How many Americans know that when Rush Limbaugh travels, he favors places like London, yeah, in that bastion of anti-Americanism, stays at the most expensive hotels, where he also buys Cuban cigars, and even when in the states, likes the most expensive imported liquor, and on and on? That information would be relevant to expose, because the entirety of Limbaugh's career has been made on the basis that he is a representative of the common man American. But we did get that picture of Kerry wind surfing.

You can be sure that McCain has expensive food tastes, but that isn't going to get coverage.

Really, we urgently need not to be giving life to this kind of coverage by analyzing as if it meant anything about the candidate. Yes, this is exactly the kind of coverage Hillary Clinton and Bill, too, are constantly subjected to, to the great delight of many a Obama supporter, but not a good enough reason for any of us to stop recognizing that the real loser when the press monkeys start playing these kinds of games is always the liberal-progressive movement.

Edit: I should have noted that Susie was endorsing upyournoz's comment, with which I wholeheartedly agree, as should be obvious, but Noz is an old favorite around here and I think his comment challenges the entire basis of this post.

It's $99.99 A POUND. It's right there in the article:

"At DiBruno Brothers, where employee Ezekial Ferguson agreed that the declining dollar was hurting imports, Obama tried goat cheese, blue cheese and Jamon Iberico, a Spanish ham that retails for $99.99/pound."

I agree with upyernoz (and with a name like that, who wouldn't?). He tried it. Takes a piece here and there. He didn't buy a pound of it. He didn't have a splendid meal with it. He tried it.

This is exactly the kind of bullshit we've been dealing with for years. Anyone interested in a Democrat in the White House next year needs to stop flinging it further.

The Lieberman jackass then writes, "likes his cheese and imported Spanish ham ..." "His"? Since when is trying something in an Italian market make it yours or part of your lifestyle? It's obviously bullshit from Lieberman.

Nevertheless, lambert throws it up, and then tries to make a larger point about $100 health care? WTF? Obama samples some ham out of a lot of things he tried in a typical Italian market and now he's ignoring health care? That's not the symbolism of the event. That's lambert's aiding and abetting of Lieberman's attempt at manufacturing symbolism.

Don't buy into this bullshittery. It only becomes "powerful symbolic messages" when somebody makes up the message out of whole cloth and then others repeat the allege message.

You know, like Al Gore invented the Internet. Do we want more of that?

really isn't the issue as I see it.

We live in a country where some people buy $99 lb ham and similar delicacies and yet we don't have universal health care.

We need it, we can afford it.

"I don't belong to any organized political party.
I'm a Democrat." - Will Rogers

Obama's not for it.

And I'm for slow food too and universal health care.

But tell, me, which is more important? I've been in the Reading Terminal market a million times, and I'm betting that 90% of the people behind the counters could be just like that woman who couldn't get into the ER and died because she lacked coverage and didn't have $100 cash to get in. Maybe the counter people at the Reading Terminal have the opportunity to bring hams with them, in lieu of cash, but I'm not sure that would work out for them.

If calling out Obama on the kind of symbolism he's sending here inflicts some pain on him such that he does the right thing, then so be it. This is not a problem I created.

[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.

DiBruno's is one of the businesses in the market which has successfully transitioned to a yuppie food palace, for better or worse. We go there. It's great. We're grateful it's there and it's convenient and it is what it is. But we don't go there to feed ourselves for the week but to gather tasty treats and luxuries - the kind of things which are more reasonably-priced and available to us than the $100 ham.

I really don't think it's the kind of place you go when you want to make a media-driven local pit stop to show your common touch. And with Obama bowling, I'm guessing that's what he's doing this week.

I almost corrected the person here who referred to the "average worker" as being over a "counter" in the Italian Market, because the _classic_ Market, the kind of thing you saw in "Rocky" - what little there is left of it, that is - means dirt-poor immigrants (usually Mexican) stationed at a "counter" which is literally boxes of produce on the curb outside - in all kinds of weather, day after day, week after week, increasingly getting rude treatment from our wonderful new Creative-Class yuppie types walking down from their new condos in hunt of the perfect artichoke.

And I'm pretty sure these folks at the "counter" don't have insurance with their "job".

Like the entire event wasn't scripted by Obama's advance team?

I guess I'd better get back on the turnip truck, because it seems I just fell off it.

[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.

He is not a Muslim

... I've got qualms about this line of inquiry.

But I'm struck that there is apparently nowhere to be found comparable outrage about this Obama quote I've noted a couple of times here:

I am convinced that whenever we exaggerate or demonize, oversimplify or overstate our case, we lose. For it is the predictability of our current political debate, that keeps us from finding new ways to meet the challenges we face. It is what keeps us locked in “either/or” thinking: the notion that we can only have big government or no government; the assumption that we must either tolerate 46 million uninsured or embrace “socialized medicine.”

To score some smarmy, Beltway-approved bipartisanship points, he paints "socialized medicine" as an example of extreme, unacceptable politics. While Hillary acknowledges with clear regret that Washington lacks the political will to truly do the right thing, Obama spits on the very idea of those 46 million (and those of us who have insurance and still get screwed) getting the same kind of health care program that every other leading country has.

So, while you're all beating up on Lambert for his ham-handed comparison, you might ask yourself if his greater point isn't valid -- that Mr. Hopey's priority on universal healthcare is literally painfully lacking.

I don't begrudge Edwards the millions he made defending people like me, or the haircut. He drove the universal health care debate in the right direction. He shoved the Overton window left.

Obama's driving the universal health care debate in the wrong direction. He's shoving the Overton window right.

And that is the message of the symbols here.

[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.

I lived in spain for three years...and its worth every penny (wipes drool from chin).

I'm in favour of people buying good food, but ham?

I *am* a Muslim, and I found Spain next to impossible to find anything to eat in. Pork pork pork. The fish was great but couldn't eat anything else.

Lambert, I was using the word "worthy" in its most pragmatic sense.

I want universal health care, too, preferably single payer, and I spent most of my fifties without health insurance. Nothing about that story is relevant to a critique of Obama's failure to take universality seriously. Yes, it says something about the class divisions in our society, and a lot about the media, but not much about anything else.

Of course Hillary's "machine" is always being accused of controlling every moment of her campaign; you really think Obama was signaling to the creative class that he's one of them by making sure that he's seen sampling some outrageously expensive ham.

Someone mentioned that the story makes clear the ham is a hundred bucks a pound, but why would anyone assume that the facts reported are true.

I'm only saying that we undermine our critique of the SCLM when we say its okay to use this stuff on any Democrat. Whatever you think about how progressive Obama is, he is a Democrat.

... I did have some backup, though I'm not certain they'd care to be quoted. See here on all the places to go to send I'm not a Muslim signals (if that's what's going on). I don't see any other way to read this choice but class-based.

Unless you're McCain, yes, I do think that the itinerary is most likely to be scripted; I'd assume exactly the same of Hillary, or Edwards, or anyone.

Let me throw it back at you: You agree there's a class-based critique here (and it's the same in the Anne Kornbluth WaPo story, where the normal is, surprise, "grim") -- so how else can such a critique be made except through symbols? Isn't that exactly what Obama's trying to do with the bowling? Why is turnabout not fair play?

Or should we just lay back and enjoy? Because this is the flip side of the class-based critique I'm making here.

[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.

Mandos, dunno where you were but if you were along the Med or up north along the Atlantic, why would you need anything more than seafood? The choice is nearly infinite, all absolutely delicious. If you're in the center there is lamb, mutton, and goat along with chicken a hundred different ways.

Throughout all of Spain there are regional vegetarian dishes and soups, and the whole southern half of the country has Muslim restaurants galore, of many different cuisines. Spain is a treasure trove of fine food, of all sorts. Your pork phobia is your issue; open your eyes next time and look for the many alternatives instead of focusing on what you can't have.

That said, jamon is one of the world's fine foods. There is a little bar on the Plaza Major in Madrid that buys their jamon exclusively from one old man who farms high in the mountains in Galicia, and his ham is the finest in all of Spain; eating it is the closest thing to an orgasm one can have from a simple taste.

pork-including stuff.

The food in Spain is delish tho--i've never had a bad meal there (unlike lots of other countries)--i stuck to fish and chicken and tortilla things (and making dinner out of tons of tapas, of course) more than pork--altho i do love chorizo.

bringiton---my political pics from Madrid-- http://www.flickr.com/photos/amberglow/sets/72157604376606007/

They put bacon in EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!! Even the chicken. What I *could* eat, wasn't great, except maybe one restaurant near the "Palace of Communications" and the Bank of Spain.

Yes, there were Turkish restaurants but I can get donair anywhere when I visit my parents in Canada (Ottawa is full of ME restaurants, cannot walk without tripping over shawarma).

I *was* briefly on the SE coast of Spain. Yes, the food was better. The ceviche or whatever was to die for.

I have taken the exact pic that you took minus the campaign stuff. The second picture.

... I could not only share a delicious meal with the interns, I could get the medical care that I needed!

[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.

Thanks for the link to your photos, but now I will have to spend several hours going through them – oh, the pain.

Funny about things that annoy us, we see them everywhere. I didn’t find pork to be dominant at all in Spain, no more so than in France or Germany or Portugal, but that’s just my eye. Except for jamon I can get pork here in the US, so when travelling I tend to try dishes that are more locally unique and repeat the ones I like so I can understand them better, in hopes I can recreate them. I make a mean paella, in the rustic Murcia style, with no pork involved, and a soup I picked up in Galicia of fava beans, pimento, onion and garlic that now I’m reminded of it I’ll need to make tomorrow.

Wonderful you got to see Seville, magnificent city, rich tradition. For me, un Californiano, Andalucía is the closest thing to home I’ve found anywhere. If I had to choose somewhere out of the US, I would live in Cordoba. For no reason I can identify, it feels just right.

Please pardon the interruption. Everyone may now return to your regularly scheduled Clinton-Obama Marathon.

and all the hot new chefs are from there apparently

Wander off-topic much more here and we will suffer the Wrath of Admin. This is a health care thread.

Perhaps there's a way to tie in travel - at least in Spain - to politics and invective and the struggle to find a decent gay bar under a new diary post.

Until then, I will say that the health care in Spain is marvelous and universal, as it should be here. Rise Up! All ye who are oppressed, Rise Up!

my new fav song--by La Casa Azul (from Barcelona)--they played this everywhere, and it was one of their finalists for Eurovision (they had their country semifinals while i was there--there was an adorable "pienso gay" song too)-- : >

youtube-- La Revolucion Sexual -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fn_MtUK_6H4

I will be Mandos
Mandos is the threadkiller
Mandos is the little commenter that brings total thread drift
He will face this thread
He will make it all about food and irrelevant things
And when the thread is derailed, you will all line up to join his path
Where the thread has gone there will be no pork
Only his subject will remain

...that pork is everywhere in Madrid (I mean, seriously, a chain restaurant called "El Museo del Jamon"?) but that you can't find items on the menu that aren't contaminated with it. Like noticeable bacon bits.

I could eat in Italian restaurants there, for instance. Yes the menu is full of pork but there are dishes that don't obviously have it.

We have the great freedom here to start new diaries on topics whenever we can put something decent together. I'm all for wander, and Lambert (in some innocence) did bring jamon and goat cheese into it, but still. Just because his original premise is stretched right to the bounds of credulity, I suggest we move the food and travel section elsewhere and let him hang on his own hambone.

Perhaps Mandos, if you have it in you to be creative rather than destructive, can start the new diary: Spain, aversion to pork, gay, and techno are the common themes. Shouldn't be too difficult for someone with your awesome power.

Your thread, boss; class it is.

Maldistribution of resources, false premise investment strategy, failure of government to meet all three of the purposes of forming this Nation, all need to be fixed before the people wake up and recognize that the government is their enemy and not their servant and decide to use some means other than the ballot to do something about it.

That and we need to get the trade restrictions eased because at $99/lb I can't afford jamon here.

but I think it's right.

[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.

there are places in that area that he should have spent time in--i remember a big, lower-priced fruit/vegetable place right there too--esp since he's making such an effort to appeal to "regular folks" in PA, no?

... was the Reading Terminal, before they yuppified it and started putting in little shops that sold tsotchkes. (Not that I have anything against expensive food, but a balance needs to be kept.)

He could also have gone to the Italian Market, where I think they do have that seen. But n-o-o-o. DiBruno's. Fancy ham.

[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.

it wasn't a very good message to send, if you are trying to reach us "low information" voters.

Thing is, I am sure Clinton, who is not exactly poor, probably shares many of Obama's high-falutin' tastes(though I remember Bill had a soft spot for McDonald's). But knows better than to advertise it on a campaign stop.

Then again, he has to know what kind of cuisine to provide to the campaign press, so they will continue to write glowingly about him, like W.

No wonder the campaign is beginning to feel like the Bataan Death March. Oh the choices!!!

Bill Clinton for First Dude!!!

there are cheaper places there--or at least there were 3 yrs ago when i was there last.

... many blocks away. Not in my neighborhood.

I guess I'd like to see Obama stumble into a class-based semiotic buzzsaw, here, and have Hillary succeed (and in a place and a city that I love).

[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.