Obama to His Base: Chill the F--- Out
After being peppered with worried supporters on a radio show Wednesday, President Obama referenced a meme that went viral on the liberal Internet the first time his presidential campaign seemed to face mortal peril—in September 2008, when John McCain polled ahead of Obama the week after picking Sarah Palin as his running mate.
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Calling in to the Tom Joyner Morning Show, Obama said, "As I say, as some of these emails that go around with my picture on them say, I can’t quote the entire thing, but 'I got this,'" The part he couldn't say on the radio? "Everyone chill the fuck out." It's pictured above.
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Perhaps Obama was pushed to recall this meme after spending several minutes with a radio host who seemed cooler, but just as nervous, as the panic-stricken Andrew Sullivan and others who thought Obama blew the debate. "The good thing is that we’ve got a lead and Tom, you guys know a little bit about basketball. You know, you have a seven game series, we’re up two zero and we lose one…" Obama said, before he was interrupted. "Yeah, but you had the open shot and you didn’t take it!" Joyner said. Obama finally got into a real pep talk:
BARACK OBAMA: I’ve got another debate on Tuesday of next week.
TOM JOYNER: Yeah.
BARACK OBAMA: And by next week I think a lot of the hand wringing will be complete because we’re going to go ahead and win this thing.
TOM JOYNER: I’m coming to the third one.
BARACK OBAMA: And the other thing is, Tom.
TOM JOYNER: Yeah?
BARACK OBAMA: You were around in 2008.
TOM JOYNER: Oh, yeah.
BARACK OBAMA: How many times did everybody say that somehow we weren’t going to win.
SYBIL WILKES: Yeah.
TOM JOYNER: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
BARACK OBAMA: Do you remember that?
TOM JOYNER: Yeah, oh do I.
BARACK OBAMA: Has everybody forgotten?
SYBIL WILKES: No, Sir.
TOM JOYNER: No, no. Not here.
TOM JOYNER: Not here. We’re still fired up. We’re still fired up.
BARACK OBAMA: As I say, as some of these emails that go around with my picture on them say, I can’t quote the entire thing, but “I got this.”
TOM JOYNER: Yeah. Yeah. I know what you’re talking about.
BARACK OBAMA: Alright?
SYBIL WILKES: And we got you, Mr. President.
TOM JOYNER: We got you, we got your back.
