White House Back-Story: The President And The Pirate

By: Mark Knoller
Topics: In The News

(White House/Pete Souza)

Pity the poor historian a couple hundred years from now, at a loss to figure out why Barack Obama, an American president at the start of the 21st century, was photographed meeting in the Oval Office with – a pirate.

What kind of unexplained policy initiative was being played out in this photo, the historian might wonder, perhaps confusing it for something other than what it was: a gag – one of dozens – for the president's remarks at the White House Correspondent's Dinner.

The joke was the idea of three top presidential aides including senior advisor David Axelrod.

They would have Mr. Obama refer to his recent meetings with world leaders.

"There I am with Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso," he would say, followed by, "there I am with Gordon Brown."

But the punch line was his assertion that he was living up to his campaign pledge that "we can't just talk to our friends." And with that, up would pop the photo of President Obama with a pirate.

This was no modern-day pirate of the type that hijacks ships off the horn of Africa. It was a buccaneer in full Captain Hook regalia: knee-high boots, a cut-away coat, an eye patch and even a parrot on his shoulder.

To get a Blackbeard, you just don't look up "pirate" in the Yellow Pages, unless you're in Somalia. And even there, pirates work in plain-clothes, except for their automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades.

The White House needed a pirate, and it turned to speechwriter Cody Keenan. It was a role not exactly in his job description.

He was "more than game," said an official familiar with the shenanigans, "as long as the costume was legit."

Fellow speechwriter Jon Lovett called costume shops all over town until he found the costume in the picture. "The President loved it," said the official.

The gag also had Mr. Obama play off his recent encounter with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a frequent vituperative critic of U.S. policy, who gave Mr. Obama a book when they met at the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago last month.

The writers worked that into the pirate gag.

"Now let me be clear," said the president of the pirate, "just because he handed me a copy of Peter Pan does not mean that I'm going to read it -- but it's good diplomatic practice to just accept these gifts."

It wasn't even close to the biggest laugh of the evening for President Obama – but for speechwriter Cody Keenan, it's a highlight of his White House career. Maybe not.

But for the benefit of that historian 200 years from now, please stash this story in the presidential archives.

(CBS)

Mark Knoller is a CBS News White House correspondent. You can read more of his posts in Hotsheet here. You can also follow him on Twitter here: http://twitter.com/markknoller.

Mark Knoller
Mark Knoller is a CBS News White House correspondent.
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by josephp5 May 13, 2009 3:20 PM EDT: In earlier comments, I took Mark Knoller to task due to his passive acceptance of prop status during a scripted Bush press conference during the lead up to the Iraq war.

I would now like to mollify my comments somewhat, after observing Mr. Knoller ask a tough question in today's White House press conference regarding Obama's reversal on releasing torture photos. I appreciate his current attempts to perform as a journalist should.; Reply to this comment


by mattcat25 May 12, 2009 3:56 PM EDT: Looks like Obama is offering him a job to protect the high seas. He seems to have a knack for having the wolf protect the hen house.
Posted by specialty8 at 12:38 PM : May 12, 2009

maybe, he's being courted into running for the Senate in Pennsylvania.....you know Pittsburgh?

yar.; Reply to this comment


by gravyboat45 May 12, 2009 3:54 PM EDT: Barry bowed to the pirate didn't he?
Posted by TheMasses03

Only to be polite, dat der's black beard, ya don't disrespect a cut throat like that, arrrgh...; Reply to this comment


by specialty8 May 12, 2009 3:38 PM EDT: Looks like Obama is offering him a job to protect the high seas. He seems to have a knack for having the wolf protect the hen house.; Reply to this comment


by commentscbsnews May 12, 2009 3:32 PM EDT: I don't get it. Granted this gag is a lot cheaper than the flyover but why are they wasting my tax dollars on a gag? Surely both of these guys have something more important to do. If being funny is that important, why didn't we elect McCain? He was hilarious at that big dinner just before the election.; Reply to this comment


by architekker-2009 May 12, 2009 2:25 PM EDT: Can you see that? How much can you save money comparing to flyover photo op? Stupid!; Reply to this comment


by josephp5 May 12, 2009 2:24 PM EDT: Sorry about my tone, shurch4truth...

But I absolutely insist that you at least look at the first 5 minutes of Bill Moyers' superb production, "Buying the War":

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/btw/watch.html

In this video, you will see a presidental press conference given less than two weeks before the US went to war with Iraq. You will see the author of this pirate article, Mark Knoller, raising his hand along with all the other "reporters", apparently attempting to get the president's attention to ask a question. However, as Moyers reveals, the entire "news conference" was fully scripted---the "reporters" all knew ahead of time what questioners were to be called on, what order they would be called on, and what the questions would be.

This deadly serious "news conference" on the eve of war was in fact a fraud perpetrated on the American people by the White House. And Mr. Knoller was complicit in this fraud by serving as a prop and pretending that he was a real reporter intent on asking real questions.

I then ask you to look at Mr. Knoller's own response to the fraud controversy:

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2007/04/26/publiceye/entry2730924.shtml

Our democracy depends on a free and active press. But in recent times the White House and the reporters that cover it have become conspiratorial, not adversarial. We see Tim Russert declaring that any conversation with an official is off the record unless stated otherwise; we see David Gregory dancing with Karl Rove; we see Bush jokingly looking in lampshades trying to find the missing WMDs, etc. Meanwhile, We The People, the great unwashed, are expected to be mollified with fun features about a pirate costume.

We need to demand that the White House press corp do their jobs. That's why my tone was not quite as "light" as some would like it.; Reply to this comment


by noloyalisti May 12, 2009 2:16 PM EDT: The other option is he is a big corporation advisor since that's what they do to the taxpayers: steal, rape and pillage.; Reply to this comment


by noloyalisti May 12, 2009 2:14 PM EDT: Maybe the pirate is teaching Obama about He who created the earth, the Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM).; Reply to this comment


by specialty8 May 12, 2009 2:08 PM EDT: I wonder if he is like about half of Obamas super team, and just forgot to pay his taxes? There may be a job waiting for him if that is the case.; Reply to this comment