November 21, 2011

motherjones:

Barack Obama on “Check, Please!” in August 2001.

Future leader of the free world:

“I’m not looking for some fancy presentation or, you know, extraordinarily subtle flavors. I mean, what I’m looking for is food that tastes good for a good price.”

That’s having your finger on the pulse of America.

Check, Please! is the hit show for grown-ups on WTTW Channel 11, the main PBS affiliate in Chicago.  A couple of Chicagoans are guests each week, they each pick their favorite restaurant in the city, and then the host and guests eat at each place together and talk about it afterwards.

I worked as an intern on the WTTW nightly news show, Chicago Tonight, in the summer of 2008.  Most of my time there had much more to do with how nutty Rod Blagojevich was, but everybody who worked there full-time had some kind of experience with Obama, mostly from when he was a young state senator, or from the crazy 2004 U.S. Senate race (most Senate races don’t involve the unsealed divorce papers of the lady who played Seven Of Nine on Star Trek Voyager, or Bears great Mike Ditka coming thisclose to becoming an 11th hour replacement candidate). 

A couple months later Barack Obama was elected President, and WTTW re-ran this episode of Check, Please!, without any kind of commentary, just as a little retrospective on how far he had come in seven short years.

No point to this, I guess, except that in a republic you’ll run across future Presidents in some funny places if you pay attention.

  1. maryandmartha reblogged this from motherjones
  2. go-home-roger reblogged this from burwell
  3. burwell reblogged this from breakfastinbed
  4. officialmittromney reblogged this from sheercalculatedsilliness
  5. sheercalculatedsilliness reblogged this from motherjones and added:
    OMG LOOK AT HIM HE’S SO YOUNG HE’S LIKE A FETUS …OR SOMETHING...SHOULD GO TO BED
  6. foulmouthedliberty reblogged this from motherjones and added:
    making me hungry...southern food. Dammit, adorable 2001 Obama - it’s bedtime, not...
  7. goodbutter reblogged this from helloscarecrow and added:
    This is the best thing the internet has found YET. But also, I am totally one of those people who watches “Check...
  8. mcemilywrites said: You know… For whatever reason, I just thought of this interview this weekend. My husband and I had to look it up on YouTube and watch it. I wonder what put us all on the, “Hey, remember the time the president was on ‘Check, Please?’” wavelength?
  9. oceansoverallofus reblogged this from blackbutshining and added:
    I want to go to In N Out with Barack. Or Vince’s Spaghetti.
  10. blackbutshining reblogged this from neighborhoodr-chicago
  11. aglennosaur reblogged this from ohmygodwaytoolong and added:
    One of my coworkers was just on this show Friday and we all DVRd it to make fun of her.
  12. belashayevich reblogged this from motherjones
  13. sstteevee reblogged this from motherjones
  14. kattterina reblogged this from motherjones
  15. ohmygodwaytoolong reblogged this from motherjones and added:
    Check, Please! is the hit show for grown-ups...WTTW Channel 11, the main PBS...