Obama has a food taster!

[green73]

Rockwell (http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/133928.html):


Like the Tyrants of Old, Obama needed a food taster before dining with senators.


WASHINGTON — Following President Obama’s lunch meeting with Senate Republicans on Capitol Hill, Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins described the food served and said the president was not able to eat since his “taster” was not present.

“University of Maine recipe for healthy lobster salad — I pointed that out to the president in keeping with the first lady’s initiatives and Fox Family Potato Chips made in Aroostook County where I’m from and wild blueberry pie full of anti-oxidants, see this was a healthy lunch as well. We did have a little ice cream on the pie too, also made in Maine, Gifford’s Ice Cream. So in all seriousness this was well received,” Collins told reporters on Thursday after the meeting at the Capitol.

“Unfortunately, you know, the president can’t,” said Collins when asked if Obama ate at the lunch meeting.

“He looked longingly at it,” Collins continued. “He honestly did look longingly at it, but apparently he has to have essentially a taster, and I pointed out to him that we were all tasters for him, that if the food had been poisoned all of us would have keeled over so, but he did look longingly at it and he remarked that we have far better food than the Democrats do, and I said that was because I was hosting.”

According to a 2009 AFP report, the U.S. Secret Service has “always refused to confirm that US presidents travel with a food ‘taster’, in line with their policy of discretion on all security related issues.”



Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/03/14/obama-couldnt-eat-at-hill-meeting-without-taster-audio/

[JK/SEA]

no way...really?...

[green73]

John Oliver provides historical perspective.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orcBNyt7V-c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orcBNyt7V-c

[paulbot24]

Just don't ask him about his previous food taster back in 2009. State secrets and all that. ;)

[green73]

Just don't ask him about his previous food taster back in 2009. State secrets and all that. ;)

Do tell.

[paulbot24]

It was a joke considering everything that went down in 2009. I forget how inquisitive people are on these forums when I haven't been on them for a while.

[green73]

It was a joke considering everything that went down in 2009. I forget how inquisitive people are on these forums when I haven't been on them for a while.

What went down? I was on a mission from God then.

[anaconda]

no way...really?...

Is this an Onion article?

[VBRonPaulFan]

The only people that have food tasters are those who are genuinely concerned for their life. The shame of that asshole, he knows what he's doing and that people hate him for it - but he continues to do it anyways.

[Matt Collins]

This is standard operating procedure. Nothing to see here...

[madengr]

Even with Clinton and his morning jogs to McD's?

[green73]

This is standard operating procedure. Nothing to see here...

Relax people. The minister of information has issued the decree. Nothing to see here.

[green73]

Collins: Nothing to see here people. The President regularly has people eat his food to see if they will die before he eats it. Get over it, losers.

[surf]

any bets on how much we pay someone to take a bite of Bambi's food before he does?
“He looked longingly at it,” Collins continued. “He honestly did look longingly at it, but apparently he has to have essentially a taster, and I pointed out to him that we were all tasters for him, that if the food had been poisoned all of us would have keeled over so, but he did look longingly at it and he remarked that we have far better food than the Democrats do, and I said that was because I was hosting.”

totally unfricking believable that it is believable

[Matt Collins]

Collins: Nothing to see here people. The President regularly has people eat his food to see if they will die before he eats it. Get over it, losers.Yep, when not in a secure environment, yes. But the question is, how can one be assured that the poison is so quick acting that will have an ill effect on the person eating it before the President eats it? :confused:

[Mini-Me]

It's kind of absurd that the Secret Service has refused to comment in the past on whether the President has a taster: I mean, the correct answer is, "Yes, of course he has a taster." If it's true, the deterrent effect ("Bah, it won't work anyway!") just might save that taster's life. If it's false, the deterrent effect might just save the President's life. Either way, unless the taster's life means absolutely nothing to them (which is apparent), the idea of using a taster has always been in great part about dissuading potential assassins from even TRYING to poison a head of state. Sure, I suppose the knowledge that the President has a taster might convince a poisoner to use a slower-acting poison, but they'd really have to do that anyway just in the off-chance a taster is used, since they probably wouldn't get a second opportunity. What silliness.

Either way, I got the totally wrong idea from the title. I thought he was having some kind of food tasting party/gathering. ;)

[HOLLYWOOD]

FYI

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2772/does-the-president-have-an-official-food-taster


The golden age of political poisoning (pace the estate of Alexander Litvinenko) has largely come and gone. As various authors on the topic have pointed out, it made for an ideal assassination method in, say, Renaissance Italy: when forensic medicine was nonexistent and food prep (even for the privileged) was unsanitary, it was pretty hard to tell what was murder and what was simply bad shellfish. Back then food tasters were defense against inadvertent poisoning as much as the deliberate kind.
Today's heads of state could be forgiven, though, for thinking poisoning might still be a risk. We know Saddam Hussein, for one, had people on the payroll to sample his chow. (His notorious son Uday apparently incurred his wrath by having a favorite food taster killed.) And arguably Viktor Yushchenko could have used some help during his run for the Ukrainian presidency in 2004; someone slipped him enough dioxin to threaten his life and disfigure him severely. Figureheads seem to have let their guard down a bit — royals in the UK and imperials in Japan have reportedly been eating taster-free for some time now. But anyone with even a finger on the reins of power has to at least consider the possibility that he or she might get poisoned.

Which is why, though there may not be anyone who puts down "presidential food taster" under "occupation" on his 1040, there are definitely mechanisms in place to ensure that the U.S. president doesn't eat anything dangerous. How these mechanisms work in practice, however . . . well, the White House, as one might imagine, plays the topic exceedingly close to the vest, and writers' requests for details (even mine) tend to go unheeded. So we've been left to piece things together as best we can from the occasional news account or memoir.


What seems clear is that when the president eats somewhere other than 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., tasters — in the form of Secret Service agents or military personnel — are likely to be involved. According to a Washington Post article from July 1990, George H.W. Bush ate out at Washington restaurants a lot by presidential standards, about once a month, and when he did he brought along his own condiments, bottled water, and a taster. On at least one occasion the taster was seen to personally wash all of George and Barbara's tableware before use and subsequently monitor its whereabouts, sample the food, supervise its service, and uncork and taste the first couple's wine.


Reports from early in Bill Clinton's first term suggest inconsistent taster use: a March '93 Post account of an impromptu dinner with the Gores at a restaurant in Alexandria, Virginia, has a trio of Secret Service agents scrutinizing the preparation of Clinton's food but not actually trying any.

But an "official" food taster (described as a "veteran of three presidencies") turns up in a local paper's feature on a Clinton get-together with Silicon Valley types in Los Gatos, California, a month earlier.

And lest you think tasters are deployed only when the president ventures off government turf, a detachment of navy culinary specialists did the tasting (per the New York Times) at a congressional lunch held at the Capitol during George W. Bush's inaugural festivities in 2001.

One presumes security has gotten tighter since (a) the 9/11 attacks and (b) the descent of W's approval ratings to depths previously plumbed only by hostage-crisis Jimmy Carter and athlete's foot.


The presidential food safety team's responsibilities go well beyond packing up a squeeze bottle of Horsey Sauce if the POTUS indicates that he's thinking Arby's. In his 2005 book Standing Next to History, former Secret Service agent Joseph Petro — who spent 23 years in the suit and shades — writes, "In principle nothing edible gets near the President unless we know where it comes from and who has handled it."

When the president digs in at a state banquet, Petro informs us, he's eating basically the same stuff as everyone else in the room, but his helping has been prepared specially by White House stewards, who suit up to match the other servers at the event and carry his plate out themselves. For events in foreign countries, it's the same thing but more so. Petro writes: "Stewards find out what's being served at the banquet and bring the ingredients with them from the United States."


OK, but try this one. The president (Reagan) is at a baseball game (opening day 1984, Baltimore), and his handlers decide they need a photo op of him eating a hot dog. You're the Secret Service guy. What do you do? According to Petro's account, you do the only thing you can: you pick a vendor at random, order one with mustard, and cross your fingers.

[CPUd]

These articles like to play it up as if the president has a choice in such matters. If someone has a gripe about it, it should be directed towards the Secret Service. He may technically be able to give them orders, but Secret Service are not going to just say OK, nevermind if he tells them he wants to eat the same food like everyone else. They will likely come up with a less-desirable alternative. They don't protect the man, they protect the office.

[tangent4ronpaul]

OK, but try this one. The president (Reagan) is at a baseball game (opening day 1984, Baltimore), and his handlers decide they need a photo op of him eating a hot dog. You're the Secret Service guy. What do you do? According to Petro's account, you do the only thing you can: you pick a vendor at random, order one with mustard, and cross your fingers.

That's the same way NSA buys computers...

-t

[tangent4ronpaul]

OK, nevermind if he tells them he wants to eat the same food like everyone else. They will likely come up with a less-desirable alternative. They don't protect the man, they protect the office.

SS1: God this POTUS is an egotystical PIA!
SS2: and he's driving the country into the ground...
SS1: The VEEP is a lot nicer - signed off on my extended vacation the other day...
SS2: and the POTUS keeps wanting to attack other countries...
SS1: and now we've got this damn sequestration - what the hell are we going to cut?
SS1+SS2 have a light bulb simultaneously go off in their heads and make eye contact... FOOD TASTER!

:D

-t

[bolil]

I've a taster too, my tongue. Food is delicious.

[KrokHead]

I think this was Obama's way of being respectful and not saying that the food sucked.

[green73]

Hitler's Food Taster Margot Woelk Says She Was Afraid of Food Poisoning


Adolph Hitler, the mass murderer who killed millions of people during the Holocaust, was reportedly a vegetarian. According to the dictator's former food taster, Margot Woelk, Hitler despised meat and only ate fruit and vegetables. Not to mention, his table manners were horrible.

http://www.enstarz.com/articles/12963/20130209/hitlers-food-taster-margot-woelk-afraid-poisoning.htm

[liveandletlive]

he was just being polite, why force yourself into eating somethin you dont like. Lobster sure aint kosher i'm sure he was pandering to his voting block's sensibilities.

either that or Michelle has got him on a strict diet.

Cut him some slack folks.

[Anti Federalist]

You are all reported for questing whatever it takes to keep our Dear Leaders safe.

[Anti Federalist]

One has to wonder why our "beloved leaders" think someone might try to poison them

////

[itshappening]

I bet the food taster gets at least $100k/year plus benefits

[surf]

OK, but try this one. The president (Reagan) is at a baseball game (opening day 1984, Baltimore), and his handlers decide they need a photo op of him eating a hot dog. You're the Secret Service guy. What do you do? According to Petro's account, you do the only thing you can: you pick a vendor at random, order one with mustard, and cross your fingers.

wow. no wonder Reagan is so legendary, living on the edge and all....

[MoneyWhereMyMouthIs2]

I bet the food taster gets at least $100k/year plus benefits


Gotta be way more. I mean... they regularly eat things people are clearly suspicious of being deadly poisonous.