Obama goes shopping at the Gap in NYC; flummoxed by credit card machine

[mountaineer]

Are all New Yorkers this idiotic?

Obama goes shopping at Gap for Michelle, kids
By Geoff Earle, Lia Eustachewich and Kate Sheehy
http://nypost.com/2014/03/11/obama-makes-stop-at-east-side-gap-store/
March 11, 2014 | 5:07pm

President Obama stunned shoppers and workers at a 42nd Street Gap store Tuesday, when he popped in before a big-bucks fund-raiser to buy clothes for his wife and kids.

The Shopper in Chief plunked down plastic to purchase three tops totaling $154.85, explaining that he wanted to support efforts to hike the national hourly minimum wage, which the Gap last month said it would do for its workers.

“It never hurts to bring something back when you’ve been on a road trip. You get points when you go home,’’ Obama quipped after buying a warm-up jacket for wife Michelle and two long-sleeve sweaters for daughters Malia, 15, and Sasha, 12.

“I think the ladies will be impressed by my style sense.”

Gap worker Sonia Del Gato, who rang up Obama at the register, was certainly impressed.

“He’s better-looking in person,” she gushed.

Carlene Whitney, one of about 20 customers in the store, added, “He shook my hand very firm, very sexy. He said today was a beautiful day to be in New York. He’s more handsome in person, very sexy.’’

Obama — in town for back-to-back fund-raisers for the Democratic National Committee and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee — was flanked by a hoard of Secret Service agents when his entourage stopped at the store at the corner of Third Avenue just after 4 p.m.

He was greeted by part-time salesclerk Susan Panariello, who told The Post she was informed by managers about an hour before his arrival “to go to the front of the store and just to wait for him.

“I tend to be at the front of the store anyway — I’m always very friendly and smiling,’’ said the 34-year-old Manhattan woman.

“He was very nice. … He was definitely really charismatic,’’ she said. “He came in and just wanted to get presents for his wife and daughters. He was joking around with everyone.”

Panariello recommended a hoodie for the First Lady, but the president said she doesn’t like them.

He instead chose a slate-blue, medium athletic zip-up track jacket for Michelle, who has made no bones about her love for Gap’s styles, once wearing a $10 t-shirt to a lunch with former First Lady Nancy Reagan.

The polyester-blend jacket, made in Vietnam, put him back $64.95.

Then Obama, who has fretted publicly about watching his daughters grow up, made sure the girls’ new duds were age-appropriate.

Panariello dug through a pile of the spring-colored sweaters for him, he anxiously told her, “I’m worried the V-neck is going to slip.’’

The president wound up buying two button-down, long-sleeve sweaters: one in light pink and the other a bright coral, both smalls. The cotton-blend items were made in China and cost $44.95 each.

“He did ask how long I’d been there and asked another worker and talked about the minimum-wage increase,’’ Panariello said.

Gap told its employees late last month that it would raise its minimum wage to $9 an hour, later increasing to $10 an hour — an amount in line to a wage hike proposal pushed by Democrats in Congress.

Afterward, “He just thanked me for my help,’’ Panariello said. “It was an honor to serve him. … It was just really exciting.”

Now his idiocy, reported by Truth Revolt:

Gaffe: Obama Visits Gap, Amazed by Credit Card Machine - "Oh wow, so you can sign the machine?"


On Tuesday, President Obama took Air Force One to New York to stop at the Gap in order to flog his case against income inequality. And there, Americans learned he had no idea how to use a credit card machine.

According to the White House press pool, Obama visited Gap because the company recently announced that it would voluntarily increase wages for employees. After telling employees that “the ladies will be impressed by my sense of style,” Obama then picked up a couple of sweaters for his girls, Sasha and Malia.

Upon checking out, however, the problems began. Obama took out his credit card and began handing it to the cashier, who told him that he could swipe his credit card in the automated machine. “Oh, wow,” Obama said, “so you can sign the machine?” He then said he was kidding: “They had these around the last time I shopped.”

The moment was reminiscent of a campaign moment in 1992, when then-President George H.W. Bush signed an electronic pad while grocery shopping. “If some guy came in and spelled George Bush differently, could you catch it?” Bush asked. He was told that fake signatures could be detected. The New York Times reported in typically condescending style (headline: “Bush Encounters the Supermarket, Amazed”):

Then he grabbed a quart of milk, a light bulb and a bag of candy and ran them over an electronic scanner. The look of wonder flickered across his face again as he saw the item and price registered on the cash register screen.

"This is for checking out?" asked Mr. Bush. "I just took a tour through the exhibits here," he told the grocers later. "Amazed by some of the technology."

Marlin Fitzwater, the White House spokesman, assured reporters that he had seen the President in a grocery store. A year or so ago. In Kennebunkport.

Some grocery stores began using electornic scanners as early as 1976, and the devices have been in general use in American supermarkets for a decade.

That story, it turned out, was false.

And, of course, Mitt Romney was excoriated for being amazed by a Wawa touchscreen machine while ordering a meal during the 2012 campaign. He said during a speech:

"I was at Wawas...I went in to order a sandwich. You press a little touchtone keypad, alright? You just touch that and, you know, the sandwich comes up. You touch this, touch this, touch this, go pay the cashier. There’s your sandwich. It’s amazing!”

The media acted as though Romney had never seen a Wawa machine before. That story, too, was false.

[Gazoo]

“He’s better-looking in person,” she gushed.

Carlene Whitney, one of about 20 customers in the store, added, “He shook my hand very firm, very sexy. He said today was a beautiful day to be in New York. He’s more handsome in person, very sexy.’’

Obama — in town for back-to-back fund-raisers

[happyg]

Obama's media and voters are in love with the trivia about him, that doesn't mean a thing when it comes to electing a president. They might as well vote for Justin Bieber. Even with all his faults, Justin has a, girly face, just like Obama.

[mountaineer]

Perfect graphic, Gazoo! 

[olde north church]

 

[Gazoo]

I realize it should be left unsaid. But just.in.case

The color of Obama's skin has nothing to do with why I am left with the feeling of barfing all over. It makes me sick to my stomach at how some GAP cashier actually said this and how the man could carry a communist flag, kill a puppy; all awhile balancing a world globe to save us from something and the media drools.. Plus, I think that maybe, just maybe, the media made up that any GAP girl was drooling over him.

[happyg]

Remember when Clinton was asked if he boxers or briefs. Liberals are a classless society unto themselves.

[mountaineer]

The polyester-blend jacket, made in Vietnam, put him back $64.95.

Yet another hint as to why we're gazillions in debt.