'Why Obama came to my stag do'

[Pirate Smile]

'Why Obama came to my stag do'

By Paul Burnell
The One Show

Some years before Barack Obama began his run for the White House he found himself on a pub crawl in England helping give a traditional British send-off to a nervous bridegroom.
He is the man who could be the first black president of the United States. But for Ian Manners, Barack Obama is the guy who turned up for his stag night.
Ian was marrying Mr Obama's half-sister, whose mother Kezia Obama was the first wife of the senator's Kenyan-born father.

-snip-
And this is how Harvard-educated Obama, who was a civil rights lawyer at the time, ended up on a pub crawl in 1997 in Wokingham with Ian Manners.
Then in his 30s, Mr Obama found himself witnessing the British ritual of the pre-wedding humiliation of the bridegroom. Ian and his friends had just moved to a pub called The Rose, when the predictable happened.

"When we got there we had a couple of drinks. Then there was a bit of a commotion and they sort of directed me into a back room with one exit," recalls Ian.
"Lo and behold, a strippergram turned up. She was a St Trinian's school girl."
"As she started I saw that he was making an exit. He obviously saw my embarrassment because I was marrying his sister."

Soon afterwards the man, who could within the year be elected to the most powerful job in the world, decided it was time to return to his hotel room.

Ian has no doubts his stag guest is presidential material.
"I'm not a gambling man but it is worth a good bet. I would put money on it," he says.


Barack Obama at his sister's UK wedding

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7213584.stm

[Bicoastal]

1. Well, Obama respects women enough to leave the room when a stripper shows up...

:shrug: I dunno, I still feel like Hillary's supporters will find some red meat in here somewhere. "Obama goes on pub crawls! He's a frat boy like Bush!" :eyes:

[whatchamacallit]

2. Yeah, I think the Hill People want a mature candidate like

McCain!

[Pirate Smile]

3. As a chick, I kind of like that he ducked out when the stripper showed up.

Earlier in the week I heard someone comparing Obama and McCain re strippers (bizarre - yes, I know). They were saying McCain had dated a stripper v. Obama high-tailed it from a bachelor party when the stripper showed up.

[Bicoastal]

4. McCain dated a stripper? Really?

During what decade?

[Pirate Smile]

5. I don't know. I heard it on the radio. It was POTUS or Air America on XM.

It was some time back in his half-century of service to the country. I love that "tribute" Obama pays to McCain.:evilgrin:

[Kittycat]

6. As a woman, I really respect that.

I know it's a right to passage for some men (or so they think), but the fact that he just quietly got up and walked out - not making a scene or really commenting, sent a louder message to those guys I think. It's about respect. He clearly loves and respects his wife.

[Pirate Smile]

7. I know. That definitely wins him some extra points with me.

I doesn't surprise me though.

I don't think he is a fan of sleazy stuff. This is from an article about his poker group from Springfield:

"Obama’s analytical mind helped him excel at draw, stud, and hold ’em, and also at the sillier, more luck-based variants of the game that other players chose, such as baseball. Yet, even with the beer drinking and cigarette smoking, there were unspoken rules of conduct. When a married lobbyist arrived at a Springfield game with a person described as “an inebriated woman companion who did not acquit herself in a particularly wholesome fashion,” Obama made a face indicating that he wasn’t pleased. Link says that the lobbyist and his date were “quickly whisked out of the place.”'

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2008/02/04/080204ta_talk_mcmanus

[obamian]

8. Here's the video breakdown

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-y0DhAimlo

[Pirate Smile]

9. Thanks for that.

[VolcanoJen]

10. It's almost as good a story as that front page New York Times piece on Sunday.

There's just no "there" there. :-)

[Pirate Smile]

11. Their searches for dirt seem to just end up making him look better.

:)