Obama, Eisenhower, Bush and "chopped liver"
On President Obama's scale of readiness to be president, Dwight Eisenhower and George H. W. Bush aren't exactly "chopped liver."
He made the deli counter reference in an interview that aired on CBS' "Face the Nation" in defending his assertion that there has never been a candidate better prepared for the presidency than Hillary Clinton.
When host John Dickerson asked the president whether he considered Clinton better prepared than, say, Eisenhower or Bush, Mr. Obama clarified his assertion.
"I said 'more prepared,'" he said. "I didn't say that they were, you know, chopped liver."
He added that "heading up the Allied forces is pretty good training for the presidency," and "George H.W. Bush is one of the most underrated presidents we have had. I think he was and is a really good man." The president suggested that Clinton's skill sets are "similar to many of the skill sets that they had -- experience in government, experience in working with a wide range of people, solving big, difficult problems, familiarity with the world."
It wasn't the first time President Obama has used the "chopped liver" reference.
At the start of a town meeting in Belgrade, Montana in 2009, he made a pâté reference when someone in the audience shouted, "Where's Michelle?"
"Where's Michelle?" said the president, repeating the audience inquiry. "Come on, what is this, chopped liver here?" he said referring to himself.
But among delicatessen references most frequently used to describe politicians, chopped liver doesn't hold a cracker against baloney.
