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	Name:	lotowner -
	Subject:	Obama's Drone Joke
	Date:	5/4/2010 11:07:54 AM

Obama drone joke: Was it offensive?

Everyone agrees that President Obama was funnier than Jay Leno at the White House Correspondents Association dinner on Saturday night. But this joke is inspiring some backlash:

"Jonas Brothers are here, they're out there somewhere. Sasha and Malia are huge fans, but boys, don't get any ideas. Two words for you: predator drones. You will never see it coming. You think I'm joking?"
"You have to wonder why in the world the president's speech writers would think it was a good idea to throw a joke about predator drones into the president's speech during the White House Correspondent's Dinner, given that an estimated one-third of drone casualties, or between 289 and 378, have been civilians," wrote Adam Serwer at the American Prospect.

"Let's be honest, fellow progressives, we'd be all over Bush if he made the same 'predator drone' joke Obama told last night," Philadelphia Daily News' Will Bunch tweeted.

Salon's Alex Pareene says the joke wasn't appropriate because Obama told it:

The joke mighta worked, and certainly would've been less offensive, coming from anyone else. It seems like a no-brainer that the people directly responsible for tragedies should not deliver jokes about those tragedies. That's why Mel Brooks can tell Hitler jokes and Germans can't.
Drone attacks in Pakistan have killed hundreds of suspected insurgents since early 2009 -- but they have also killed civilians and stirred up animosity towards the U.S. in Pakistan.

President Bush was pilloried for making light of the lack of WMDs in Iraq at the 2004 White House Correspondents' Dinner. Does Obama deserve similar treatment?