Obama’s Hollywood Disaster

Posted on | August 17, 2010 | 35 Comments

ROSSYLYN, Va. — Just as I predicted, President Obama’s Hollywood fundraiser produced a traffic catastrophe in Los Angeles:

While I was in Los Angeles yesterday, I got a call from my friend Joe Fein, who told me he wouldn’t be able to make it to an event featuring Pamela Geller, author of The Post-American Presidency, that he had hoped to attend.
“They’ve shut down Olympic Boulevard!” Joe said in outraged tones, explaining that the major east-west thoroughfare had been closed to allow President Obama’s motorcade to proceed from Los Angeles International Airport to a fundraising dinner with Nancy Pelosi at the home of one of the president’s liberal Hollywood friends.

It turned out that Evan Sayet was right in advising that my trip from the San Fernando Valley down the 405 to LAX would not be delayed by the presidential visit, but pity those Angelenos who were trying to travel east-to-west or vice-versa:

Someone apparently decided that Obama’s $30,000-a-plate dinner at the house of “West Wing” producer John Wells necessitated shutting down most of the major east-west through streets in Los Angeles. . . .
If the President was unable to get to John Wells’ house without causing this level of disruption, then perhaps he should have done his fundraising somewhere else . . .

A reporter for the Los Angeles Times quoted one reader’s comment:

“I was an Obama supporter, but … was stopped by police from crossing Olympic to get home … during my daily dog walk. . . . I’ve lost all belief in his judgment. Can he really think he’s more important than the tens of thousands of people trying to get home to their families?“

Yes He Can!

UPDATE: Joe Fein, who has been trying to get the dysfunctional California GOP to fight for votes in L.A., says Obama’s Mother Of All Traffic Jams has made his job easier.

UPDATE II: Smile and say, “Charles Johnson!”

Professor Donald Douglas has more on last night’s L.A. event with Pamela Geller. I was very impressed with the turnout. Among the 250 or so in attendance was a woman named Rita who, when I asked her last name, became fearful: “Don’t put my last name in there. I’m in the entertainment business. You do that” — i.e., identify yourself as a Republican in Hollywood — “and you’re blacklisted.”

BTW, to explain the Rosslyn dateline on this post: I’m blogging from the offices of The American Spectator, whence I’ve come to spend a few hours because my wife can’t pick me up until this afternoon. Let me suggest that you should subscribe today, because sooner or later I’m going to file another expense report and . . . well, talk about a nightmare!

Thanks to all those who’ve contributed to the Shoe Leather Fund to help keep me traveling during this campaign year. My current plans are to visit Delaware next, before taking a trip down South. And thanks, of course, to Mrs. Other McCain for putting up with my vagabond existence. I should point out that my lovely bride recently got her own Twitter account. She doesn’t Tweet much, although she did suggest she’s looking forward to my homecoming, IYKWIMAITYD.

UPDATE III: Obama’s departure was no less disastrous than his arrival, a Twitter friend informs me:

Obama arrived in rush hour traffic, and he left this morning in it, too. Everyone in my office was late to work this morning.

And in the comments, our California friend Jehuda the Rhetorican says:

It is very likely POTUS saved or created thousands of GOP voters through the traffic jams he unleashed last night. . . . I was in one of them. Not fun.

“Fun”? Whoever said Hope and Change would be fun?

UPDATE IV: Wow, they’re really angry out there:

One man, who did not want to give his name, said it had taken his wife four hours to drive home from Brentwood. Another man trying to walk west on 6th Street to his office shouted at the officers blocking his way and told them he wished he had voted for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Obama’s opponent in the 2008 presidential race.

Heh.

Category: American Power, Atlas Shrugs, Barack Obama, California, Hollywood, Mrs. Other McCain, Shoe Leather Fund, Valley of the Shadow

Comments

35 Responses to “Obama’s Hollywood Disaster”

Dan Collins
August 17th, 2010 @ 3:14 pm

Nice, though, that he doesn’t attend church services because of the inconvenience to others.
Dan Collins
August 17th, 2010 @ 11:14 am

Nice, though, that he doesn’t attend church services because of the inconvenience to others.
two kgs of pigsnout
August 17th, 2010 @ 3:32 pm

Gee…this never happened with Bush when he was the President. Maybe TOM and similar blogs simply have a selective memory and a collective amnesia while reporting these traffic inconveniences.

gg
two kgs of pigsnout
August 17th, 2010 @ 11:32 am

Gee…this never happened with Bush when he was the President. Maybe TOM and similar blogs simply have a selective memory and a collective amnesia while reporting these traffic inconveniences.

gg
Cassy Fiano
August 17th, 2010 @ 11:40 am

[…] The Other McCain Obama’s Hollywood disaster […]
JakeG
August 17th, 2010 @ 3:46 pm

Maybe if we could get the Obama motorcade to tour the Arizona and Texas border, we may be able to keep it secure for a few days. And yes two kegs Bush snarled traffic as well. But then again, Bush is not the president now. Obama is. Amazing how liberals like to talk about Bush more than the guy they tossed into office. I guess that shows that even the die-hard left is embarrassed with their president.
JakeG
August 17th, 2010 @ 11:46 am

Maybe if we could get the Obama motorcade to tour the Arizona and Texas border, we may be able to keep it secure for a few days. And yes two kegs Bush snarled traffic as well. But then again, Bush is not the president now. Obama is. Amazing how liberals like to talk about Bush more than the guy they tossed into office. I guess that shows that even the die-hard left is embarrassed with their president.
Robert Stacy McCain
August 17th, 2010 @ 3:50 pm

Gee…this never happened with Bush when he was the President.

You’re right, it never happened with Bush, because nobody in Hollywood would dare be seen in public with a Republican!
Robert Stacy McCain
August 17th, 2010 @ 11:50 am

Gee…this never happened with Bush when he was the President.

You’re right, it never happened with Bush, because nobody in Hollywood would dare be seen in public with a Republican!
Zander
August 17th, 2010 @ 3:54 pm

Dictators get to shut down roads!!! didn’t you know that?
Zander
August 17th, 2010 @ 11:54 am

Dictators get to shut down roads!!! didn’t you know that?
Bunni
August 17th, 2010 @ 4:14 pm

I love it, all the disgruntled dims now. Even Babs stood him up. He pulled the same crap when he was in Chicago the other week. They even shut down the overhead trains.
I was there and wrote about it on my blog.
Bunni
August 17th, 2010 @ 12:14 pm

I love it, all the disgruntled dims now. Even Babs stood him up. He pulled the same crap when he was in Chicago the other week. They even shut down the overhead trains.
I was there and wrote about it on my blog.
Jehuda
August 17th, 2010 @ 4:47 pm

It is very likely POTUS saved or created thousands of GOP voters through the traffic jams he unleashed last night. Yes, there was more than one of them, all in about a 30 mile radius. I was in one of them. Not fun.
Jehuda
August 17th, 2010 @ 12:47 pm

It is very likely POTUS saved or created thousands of GOP voters through the traffic jams he unleashed last night. Yes, there was more than one of them, all in about a 30 mile radius. I was in one of them. Not fun.
The Osprey
August 17th, 2010 @ 6:31 pm

So, Charles Johnson didn’t show up to debate Pamela over the Grond Zero Mosque?
The Osprey
August 17th, 2010 @ 2:31 pm

So, Charles Johnson didn’t show up to debate Pamela over the Grond Zero Mosque?
Mikey NTH
August 17th, 2010 @ 8:06 pm

I remember I-94 being shut down because Bill Clinton was in Detroit for some function, but they didn’t shut down Michigan Avenue or other major routes into the city.
Mikey NTH
August 17th, 2010 @ 4:06 pm

I remember I-94 being shut down because Bill Clinton was in Detroit for some function, but they didn’t shut down Michigan Avenue or other major routes into the city.
Charles Johnson
August 17th, 2010 @ 9:34 pm

You mock me with your updates!

RSM is a human supremacist who is biased and raaaaacist against those of use cold blooded and born of eggs.
Charles Johnson
August 17th, 2010 @ 5:34 pm

You mock me with your updates!

RSM is a human supremacist who is biased and raaaaacist against those of use cold blooded and born of eggs.
Fausta’s Blog » Blog Archive » This moment in Obamaland: See you at rush hour!
August 17th, 2010 @ 6:56 pm

[…] UPDATE Stacy says the President caused traffic jams in the morning, too. […]
Charles Johnson
August 17th, 2010 @ 11:20 pm

Hissssssss. That is not a lisp.
Charles Johnson
August 17th, 2010 @ 7:20 pm

Hissssssss. That is not a lisp.
JeffS
August 17th, 2010 @ 11:27 pm

I watched then Vice President Bush (that’s Dubya’s dad, gg) zip down I90/94 for a fund raiser back in the late 1980’s.

They shut down the entire interstate system from O’Hare Airport into the Loop — during the evening rush hour — for this. Traffic was snarled for hours. I got to watch the VP parade from the comfort of a Northwest commuter train, parked over the interstate at a regular stop. Both sides of the interstate were shut down, and they had the road all to themselves. It was an amazing sight.

Of course, Bush was Reagan’s VP (which means Dubya’s dad was a Republican, gg), entering the Democratic stronghold of Chicago. There is no way Chicago will ever vote other than Democrat, so they really had nothing to lose. Or gain.

Unlike Obama in Los Angeles….another Democrat stronghold. Way to screw the pooch, champ. Especially when the pooch votes Democrat.
JeffS
August 17th, 2010 @ 7:27 pm

I watched then Vice President Bush (that’s Dubya’s dad, gg) zip down I90/94 for a fund raiser back in the late 1980’s.

They shut down the entire interstate system from O’Hare Airport into the Loop — during the evening rush hour — for this. Traffic was snarled for hours. I got to watch the VP parade from the comfort of a Northwest commuter train, parked over the interstate at a regular stop. Both sides of the interstate were shut down, and they had the road all to themselves. It was an amazing sight.

Of course, Bush was Reagan’s VP (which means Dubya’s dad was a Republican, gg), entering the Democratic stronghold of Chicago. There is no way Chicago will ever vote other than Democrat, so they really had nothing to lose. Or gain.

Unlike Obama in Los Angeles….another Democrat stronghold. Way to screw the pooch, champ. Especially when the pooch votes Democrat.
JeffS
August 17th, 2010 @ 11:29 pm

RE: Update III. I don’t recall then VP Bush messing up commuter traffic the next day, so by that metric, Bush 41 is only half as bad as Obama.
“President Obama made My Job Easier Tonight” and an explanation for the LA traffic mess yesterday « California TCOT
August 17th, 2010 @ 7:29 pm

[…] traffic mess yesterday August 17, 2010 Erick Brockway Leave a comment Go to comments h/t The Other McCain, who was also stuck in the Obama LA Fundraising […]
JeffS
August 17th, 2010 @ 7:29 pm

RE: Update III. I don’t recall then VP Bush messing up commuter traffic the next day, so by that metric, Bush 41 is only half as bad as Obama.
wormme
August 17th, 2010 @ 11:36 pm

That’s gonna leave a heck of a carbon footprint. We non-government types will have to give up air-conditioning to make up for it.
wormme
August 17th, 2010 @ 7:36 pm

That’s gonna leave a heck of a carbon footprint. We non-government types will have to give up air-conditioning to make up for it.
young4eyes
August 18th, 2010 @ 1:50 am

“Amazing how liberals like to talk about Bush more than the guy they tossed into office. I guess that shows that even the die-hard left is embarrassed with their president.”
That’s funny, because Republicans couldn’t stop talking about Clinton during the 8 years that Bush was President. I even recall a ridiculous talking point that tried to blame 9-11 on Clinton.
So either Conservatives are hypocrites or they are hypocrites…
Oh I know, they’re just full of shit…
young4eyes
August 17th, 2010 @ 9:50 pm

“Amazing how liberals like to talk about Bush more than the guy they tossed into office. I guess that shows that even the die-hard left is embarrassed with their president.”
That’s funny, because Republicans couldn’t stop talking about Clinton during the 8 years that Bush was President. I even recall a ridiculous talking point that tried to blame 9-11 on Clinton.
So either Conservatives are hypocrites or they are hypocrites…
Oh I know, they’re just full of shit…
JeffS
August 18th, 2010 @ 4:19 am

I even recall a ridiculous talking point that tried to blame 9-11 on Clinton.

Heh — Obama is so lame on this one, that Y4E dredges up a long discredited leftie meme in an equally lame attempt to distract us from his Los Angeles screw up. And has to back to 2001 to do it! Heh heh heh heh!

Yo, Y4E, a hint: Shouting “BUNNIES!!!!!!”, and pointing away isn’t a great debate tactic.

Obama screwed the pooch here (twice, actually, in a 24 hour period), and all the spin by all the Obamabots in the world won’t change that.

Have a nice day!
JeffS
August 18th, 2010 @ 12:19 am

I even recall a ridiculous talking point that tried to blame 9-11 on Clinton.

Heh — Obama is so lame on this one, that Y4E dredges up a long discredited leftie meme in an equally lame attempt to distract us from his Los Angeles screw up. And has to back to 2001 to do it! Heh heh heh heh!

Yo, Y4E, a hint: Shouting “BUNNIES!!!!!!”, and pointing away isn’t a great debate tactic.

Obama screwed the pooch here (twice, actually, in a 24 hour period), and all the spin by all the Obamabots in the world won’t change that.

Have a nice day!