When you're president, insults are a dime a dozen.
They'll come from the politicians you walk by every morning in the White House halls, a world leader you just shook hands with two months earlier, political pundits, and everyday Americans. George W. Bush had an onslaught of insults thrown his way—from anything about his stu-stut-stuttering, to his tendency to mix up words, to getting called a "dumb fuck" by one of the Dixie Chicks. Bill Clinton, too, took a lot of flack as president (a general called him a "dope-smoking," "skirt-chasing," "draft-dodging" Commander in Chief), and he still puts up with shit to this day (Justin Bieber once said "Fuck Bill Clinton" while pissing in a bucket).
President Barack Obama isn't immune to insults either, and had countless slights thrown his way before he was even elected. Considering the rise of the social era, these disses aren't getting swept under the rug anytime soon.
Here are the most insulting things politicians have said about President Obama.
"I cannot even stand to look at you." (Right to President Obama's face.)
Obama is a godless “enemy of humanity.”
"You Lie!"
"It’s like touching a tar baby."
When: August 2011
Who: Rep. Doug Lamborn
Rep. Doug Lamborn of Colorado went on a state wide radio program, and used the racially-charged term, "tar baby":
Even if some people say, “Well, the Republicans should have done this, or should have done that,” they will hold the President responsible. Now, I don’t even want to be associated with him, it’s like touching a, a tar baby and you get it… you know you’re stuck and you’re part of the problem and you can’t get away.
He's "thin-skinned" and a "failed president."
Obama follows "Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior."
Obama has to "learn how to be American."
When: July 2012
Who: Former Gov. John Sununu
During a Mitt Romney campaign conference call, former New Hampshire Governor John Sununu, played off the myth that President Obama is a foreigner as he discussed jobs. “The men and women all over America who have worked hard to build these businesses, their businesses, from the ground up is how our economy became the envy of the world. It is the American way. And I wish this president would learn how to be an American."
He "has no idea how the American system functions... because he spent his early years in Hawaii smoking something."
When: July 2012
Who: Former Gov. John Sununu
The former governor continued to throw shade at the president when he appeared on Fox News later the same day: "[Obama] has no idea how the American system functions, and we shouldn’t be surprised about that, because he spent his early years in Hawaii smoking something, spent the next set of years in Indonesia, another set of years in Indonesia, and, frankly, when he came to the U.S. he worked as a community organizer, which is a socialized structure, and then got into politics in Chicago.”
"Now you know why—No birth certificate."
When: April 2011
Who: GOP official Marilyn Davenport
GOP official Marilyn Davenport forwarded an email containing a picture featuring President Obama's face Photoshopped onto a family of chimps.
She added the tagline: "Now you know why—No birth certificate."
Witch doctor drawing of Obama was only making fun of his "white half."
"The food stamp president."
Rep. Paul Broun Compares Obama to "Hitler," calls him a "Marxist."
He's "palling around with terrorists.”
When: October 2008
Who: Gov. Sarah Palin
Governor Sarah Palin, who was then John McCain's running mate (and worst mistake) ripped into Barack Obama while on the campaign trail for his past associations with Bill Ayers, a professor from Chicago who used to be a member of the radical group, Weatherman Underground.
This is not a man who sees America as you see it and how I see America. We see America as the greatest force for good in this world. If we can be that beacon of light and hope for others who seek freedom and democracy and can live in a country that would allow intolerance in the equal rights that again our military men and women fight for and die for for all of us. Our opponent though, is someone who sees America it seems as being so imperfect that he’s palling around with terrorists who would target their own country?
Obama "perverts 'prosecutorial discretion'" for inviting undocumented immigrant to sit with Michelle Obama.
When: January 2015
Who: Congressman Steve King
Congressman Steve King of Iowa tweeted this just hours before the 2015 State of the Union address, in reference to the president inviting Ana Zamaro, a 20-year-old student who recently was granted temporary legal status thanks to Obama's executive action on immigration, to sit with the First Lady.
#Obama perverts "prosecutorial discretion" by inviting a deportable to sit in place of honor at #SOTU w/1st Lady. I should sit with Alito.
— Steve King (@SteveKingIA) January 20, 2015