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Pizza Shop Owner Faces Boycott For Welcoming Obama

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Can someone please explain how the Secret Service allowed this man to pick up and bear hug the President? This whole thing was a farce, just laughable. I just hate staged photo ops. I don't care what side of the fence they're on. It's basically a statement of how stupid they think Americans are.
 
CPA said:
Can someone please explain how the Secret Service allowed this man to pick up and bear hug the President? This whole thing was a farce, just laughable. I just hate staged photo ops. I don't care what side of the fence they're on. It's basically a statement of how stupid they think Americans are.
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Two fold publicity stunt.

Obama being welcomed by a small businessman.

Small Business owner able to put up Obama's picture on his wall.

Obama may not have known; but the owner was smart enough to be cleared for it by the SS. He has already been vetted as being safe. That way; Obama does not need to fake surprise.
 
EagleKeeper said:
Two fold publicity stunt.

Obama being welcomed by a small businessman.

Small Business owner able to put up Obama's picture on his wall.

Obama may not have known; but the owner was smart enough to be cleared for it by the SS. He has already been vetted as being safe. That way; Obama does not need to fake surprise.
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The guy said he was a registered Republican, and as any upstanding Democrat in this forum will tell you, those people cannot be trusted. Evil to the core, they are. He could have snapped Obama in half, then what?

I'll tell you what.

Four months of a Biden presidency.

How scary is that?
 
It looks like the boycott was fabricated to bring free publicity to the pizza joint. On the subject of boycotts, the liberals have used boycotts many, many, many times to try to force businesses and institutions to change to their positions.
 
CPA said:
Can someone please explain how the Secret Service allowed this man to pick up and bear hug the President? This whole thing was a farce, just laughable. I just hate staged photo ops. I don't care what side of the fence they're on. It's basically a statement of how stupid they think Americans are.
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The man did an interview with CNN and he said the Secret Service showed up LONG before Obama got there to secure the building. They apparently took all the sharp pointy objects and Obama walked in alone and said "Where's Scott?"

Everything doesnt have to be staged you know. Filming it with a video camera doesnt make it a fake exchange.


rickon66 said:
It looks like the boycott was fabricated to bring free publicity to the pizza joint. On the subject of boycotts, the liberals have used boycotts many, many, many times to try to force businesses and institutions to change to their positions.
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Okay...so you think the owner got a bunch of liberals to write scathing reviews of his own business under the disguise of angry republicans who hate Obama. OK.
 
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Also, a lot of people look at reviews before going to unfamiliar businesses. I don't know about you guys, but resturaunts that have a lot of reviews that are negative are ones that I avoid. Disregarding the negative reviews that mention politics specifically, there are also those reviews that were written by the same people simply saying things like "Came here for an outing, food was terrible" "DON'T EAT HERE"..etc.

Some people arent able to look at things like this and go "hmm...all 1,000 of these negative reviews were posted on 9/10/12..maybe these are trolls". Some people will actually look at it and decide not to go there. That hurts his business.

What business do you know that are owned locally that instantly have 100+ customers on their first day? Negative word of mouth reviews hurt, true or not.
 
I don't know why people wouldn't be glad to speak to the president and/or meet him. Reguardless if you are for him or not, or like him or not. You must respect him. His job has to suck. On the clock basically 24/7. If shit hits the fan when its 3am and he is asleep. BAM he is awakened. If he goes on a 2 week vacation, and War was to break out against America on day 2. Sorry that vacation is no longer going to happen.
 
CPA said:
Can someone please explain how the Secret Service allowed this man to pick up and bear hug the President? This whole thing was a farce, just laughable. I just hate staged photo ops. I don't care what side of the fence they're on. It's basically a statement of how stupid they think Americans are.
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The president’s Secret Service agents looked a bit perturbed, but Mr. Van Duzer said that he got permission first. Speaking to reporters after, he said an agent “said I was all right as long as I didn’t take him away.”
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So, he asked for permission.
 
CPA said:
Can someone please explain how the Secret Service allowed this man to pick up and bear hug the President? This whole thing was a farce, just laughable. I just hate staged photo ops. I don't care what side of the fence they're on. It's basically a statement of how stupid they think Americans are.
Click to expand...

No way that bear hug was a staged event. It could have very easily turned into a Jimmy Carter and the killer bunny moment for Obama. Very little upside, tons of downside potential for Obama in photos from that that showed him looking ackward or terrified.

BTW the news reports I heard said the Secret Service didn't know of the hug in advance but decided not to interfer as it was obviously friendly.

I bet Obama won't have to go to a chiropractor for a while.
 
Thump553 said:
No way that bear hug was a staged event. It could have very easily turned into a Jimmy Carter and the killer bunny moment for Obama. Very little upside, tons of downside potential for Obama in photos from that that showed him looking ackward or terrified.

BTW the news reports I heard said the Secret Service didn't know of the hug in advance but decided not to interfer as it was obviously friendly.

I bet Obama won't have to go to a chiropractor for a while.
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I wonder if he ate a slice of pizza!

I remember Michelle Obama telling David Letterman that she and Barrack have really been testing out the Secret Service by putting them in awkward positions. One of the videos they showed as an example was when the Obamas had that field day for the schoolkids on the front lawn of the White House. Michelle was playing with a group of kids with a tarp and she disappeared under it, the SS dude quickly (gently) pushed another kid aside to see where she went. Literally a millisecond after she went under there, he was already talking on his earpiece and investigating the scene. lol

Also, there was that one time where Obama came to the Five Guys near my home in the DC Area after driving around and seeing the place. He wanted to go inside and get food, so he came in with a bunch of SS agents surrounding him since they obviously couldnt scope the place before he came in. He walked up to the counter like a regular customer (minus the Men In Black surrounding him) and chatted with the people behind the counter and got his food.

I assume with how friendly the Obamas seem to be with the citizenry that its a very awkward situation for a group of people put there to make sure nobody comes in contact with them.
 
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rickon66 said:
It looks like the boycott was fabricated to bring free publicity to the pizza joint. On the subject of boycotts, the liberals have used boycotts many, many, many times to try to force businesses and institutions to change to their positions.
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what proof you have that its fabricated?

to be honest i wouldn't be surprised. but would like actual proof.
 
All a boycott is is refusing to give some business money due to some unrelated behavior.

So:
1) Are there people refusing to give him business solely based on the president's visit. Yes.
2) Are there people spreading the word to try to get others to not give him business solely based on the visit? Yes (though any person can boycott someone without needing this step)
3) Based on 1 & 2 above there is a boycott of some kind but it is likely overblown.

Boycotting a business because the current POTUS wants to recognize the good work you've done for the community is completely dumb, even if it is just the little childish boycott crap that has been down. Pathetic really. If he had said he was going to donate to Planned Parenthood or an anti-gay group or something like that then sure, feel free to boycott. In this instance you are just being petty.

I think this is just the end result of our modern echo chamber media. A partisan person can spend their entire time listening to, reading or watching media that praises their partisan views/leaders and villifies everyone else. No longer is it a case that the people across the aisle have different ideas on what is best for America instead it is that the people across the aisle are intentionally and maliciously trying to destroy America. This crap started when Dubya was president but ramped up exponentially when Obama got elected. It is at such a fever pitch now that just getting a congratulations from the president is enough to land you in these people's cross hairs...does make me wonder how they feel about kids that do the presidential fitness thing, maybe they view them as essentially Hitler's youth (ooo goodwin'd it, yay!).
 
BoberFett said:
The guy said he was a registered Republican, and as any upstanding Democrat in this forum will tell you, those people cannot be trusted. Evil to the core, they are. He could have snapped Obama in half, then what?

I'll tell you what.

Four months of a Biden presidency.

How scary is that?
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Significantly less scary than the idea of four years of Romney.
 
I think it's silly to stage a boycott or even give lousy internet reviews to someone just because he was visited by a politician you don't agree with. But I fully support the rights of people to do just that. If you defended the Chick-Fil-A boycott, you cannot turn around and say that this is wrong. Even if you disagree with the reasons behind the boycott (and I can't stress how stupid I think they are), you have to support their right to choose not to patronize a business that engages in political behavior, regardless of how trivial that behavior seems.
 
Atomic Playboy said:
I think it's silly to stage a boycott or even give lousy internet reviews to someone just because he was visited by a politician you don't agree with. But I fully support the rights of people to do just that. If you defended the Chick-Fil-A boycott, you cannot turn around and say that this is wrong. Even if you disagree with the reasons behind the boycott (and I can't stress how stupid I think they are), you have to support their right to choose not to patronize a business that engages in political behavior, regardless of how trivial that behavior seems.
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I don't think anyone is saying they don't have a right to boycott. You can boycott because he's wearing grey if you want, it won't make it less stupid.

There is a big difference in boycotting a business because the owner is giving financial support to an organization you do not like and boycotting a business because the owner accepted congratulations on his work for the community from the POTUS. The former makes sense (some of the money you give them eventually ends up at an organization you don't support) the latter is just petty.
 
There is also a difference between boycotting a multi-billion dollar company that uses millions of those dollars to directly influence national policy and a small business whose owner donates a few thousand dollars to a few campaigns.
 
Gonad the Barbarian said:
There is also a difference between boycotting a multi-billion dollar company that uses millions of those dollars to directly influence national policy and a small business whose owner donates a few thousand dollars to a few campaigns.
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or a company whose CEO is the one behind the counter making the Pizza.
 
JulesMaximus said:
Can I order a pizza online to support this guy?

What a bunch of shitheads.
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I don't disagree because even though Monovillage pointed out there's no boycott, people being dishonest on Yelp and down-rating an establishment at which they've never eaten because of an enthusiastic reception for the President ARE shitheads. Boycotts should be for evil things, not for simple political disagreement. And a congratulatory visit from the President SHOULD be a great honor, no matter whether you did or will vote for him.

As to your question, a conservative pizza shop owner who was boycotted made a bunch of money from conservatives ordering pizza on line, so he can do it if he wishes. I suspect though like Chick-Fil-A, he's got as much business as he can service at the moment.
 
Have you guys seen his yelp page recently? Its pretty crazy.... was posted on reddit and he got an influx of positive reviews to counter the 1 star GOP ones
 
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