Obama speechwriter photographed groping Hillary Clinton likeness

Hi and welcome to the Windy City's Team Obama.

It might have seemed funny during the party. But a photo has surfaced in recent hours of President-elect Barack Obama's newly-designated chief speechwriter, Jon Favreau, groping a cardboard cutout of the administration's newly-designated secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.

That's Favreau on the left in the above photo (the fellow in the Obama staff T-shirt pouring beer in the pretend politician's mouth is unidentified). The photo was first published on the Washington Post's 44 blog.

The shot of the 27-year-old writer with his hand on the 60-year-old cardboard senator's breast reportedly appeared for about two hours on a Facebook page Thursday afternoon before disappearing, along with numerous other Favreau pictures, including one of him dancing with the cardboard female secretary-designate.

An Obama spokesman says Favreau has apologized to the former first lady, who gave Obama a run for his massive piles of money during the Democratic primaries.

The transition official said Favreau has "reached out to Sen. Clinton to offer an apology," an unfortunate choice of words under the photographic circumstances, as the Swamp's Frank James points out in his item.

The embarrassing photo comes at the same time as Obama had re-issued an appeal to his supporters to make minimum $100 donations to Clinton's deceased campaign to help retire some $7 million of remaining debts, now that Clinton is on Obama's political team as its chief foreign affairs representative.

Wouldn't you like to be at that first White House Obama Cabinet meeting come January? One suspects Favreau might be too busy writing elsewhere to attend.

-- Andrew Malcolm

No groping necessary to get cellphone alerts and RSS feeds of new Ticket items. Just click here for the alerts and click here for RSS feeds.

Photo credit: Facebook via Washington Post 44 blog

Comments

[John]

This is hope we can believe in!
This is the "urgency of now"
"We are the ones we have been waiting for"

[becky person]

This is another sad reminder to everyone how women are still lacking respect in this country, and also another reminder that media people are publicizing things that don't deserve our attention. Alcohol could be the culprit in this prank, but aside from that excuse, the ridicule and criticism our female politicians are receiving lately is a sad commentary on our country today.

[joe chey]

okay obama. show us all the change and fire this idiot. he is a direct representative of you, your administration. are you, mr. obama, truly about change or just more of the same idiocy in the white house, past and present. fire this ignorant and so very stupid idiot. do it now.

[sonny]

After the Lewinsky etc drama this fluff rolls off the teflon Clintons like beads of water. You make it sound as if heads will rolls or something.

[FreeThinker]

Apparently, Favreau brings new meaning to the term, "he reached out to Senator Clinton."

[lambert strether]

Can anyone imagine the reaction if Favreau had a cardboard cutout in his room of Obama eating a watermelon? He'd be out of a job in less than a news cycle, and rightly so.

So how is this any different?

[Sam Wilson]

He's got to go.

[lemin]

Hi! He will work not just for America but for all the world.
An african from Rome.

[C. Tyler]

More displays of misogyny and the disrespect of women from Team Obama. Favrea should have been fired immediately. It seems that while we have moved forward with regard to racism, this country still has a long, long way to go with regard to sexism.

This is not about youthful antics. This is about turning an honorable, respected woman into a subject of sexualized ridicule and hate. Fire him immediately.

If Clinton had won, and one of her staff had a cardboard cut-out mocking Obama, you know that there would be a huge uproar.

[Caroline]

One suspected that Obama's campaign was like this. I'd have preferred Mrs. Clinton as president.

[Erik Story]

It was a crude, juvenile thing to do, and he must lose his new job because of it. No, I'm not talking about Andrew Malcolm this time, I'm referring to Jon Favreau. But does anyone else wonder why what looks like a headline on the latimes.com home page too often turn out to be a link to this right-wing blog? When you look at an actual newspaper (yes, some of us still do that from time to time), you know that what is on the front page is fairly objective news reporting. I expect the same from latimes.com. But ending up on Malcolm's blog too many times has caused me to lose faith in latimes.com as my primary online news source. Malcolm's dirt-digging, like the late Hedda Hopper's, makes for fun gossipy entertainment, but his lack of objectivity shows he's not a news reporter.

[Mark]

I guess it's taboo to have any fun now.

[sanfranmac]

Har-de-har har. Big deal. Did NOBODY see the vile cartoon of Obama polishing Sarah Palin's shoe on a Chicago sidewalk? Hillary and Bill pretty much did everything but call him 'boy', THROUGHOUT the campaign. If she'd won, the only post she'd have offered him would have been a Community Organizer job in Darfur.

[Alan Ford]

Well..according to the picture her breast must be in her armpit...

[Lou Savage]

As the global voice for the voiceless - cardboard cutouts and all other two-dimensional peoples of the world - I say to you: I do not approve of this behavior. We are not your playthings, Mr. Speechwriter.

[Virginia Gould]

Jon Favreau is history. This thoughtless action signifies something about the man which probably is not presidential team quality.

[Phil]

Hoiw conmpletely juvenile, crude, rude and vulgar. And these are the morans who have been putting words in Obama's mouth for the last year. What a charade this whole election has been. If you lie down with dogs you'll get up with fleas.

[vincent matheson]

Pictures are unforgiving... good luck in his new job...

[Shelbyc]

Favreau should be fired immediately, as should any Obama staffer who participated in taking and posting the photo. It's a clear travesty and, rather than being "change we can believe in," is more of the same degradation women have been fighting for decades in this country, in the struggle for equal rights.

Senator Clinton strongly advocated for women throughout her campaign by condemning the many insults that were aimed at her simply BECAUSE she is a strong, capable woman. This behavior, also, deserves condemnation from both President-elect Obama and Senator Clinton -- and all people of integrity. As a former Clinton supporter who donated hard-earned dollars and phone calls to Obama, I expect the President-elect to deal with this swiftly and decisively.

[tlr]

Not only did B.O attend a racist, anti-American church that hates white America, this photo also exemplifies he employs drunken, dope heads, who pander to America. Gee, what next? I would hate to think about it. It really doesn't surprise me much with seeing the Che Gueverra posters in his staffers offices, and his history of dope dealings, his willingness to talk with our enemies, and his wifes disdain for America. OMG, what will happen to the U.S. within a few more years. Pray for the U.S people, the illegal alien hordes who steal our jobs, and lower our standard of living voted him in. Change is bad... I love the U.S just how it is, Bush didn't cause our nation to lose jobs, illegal aliens did.

[Dorrie]

Please--this is just a stupid story--who cares! The economy is melting down, the world is riddled with madness--and you print a stupid divisive story like this????

Obama hasn't even taken the oath of office and we get this adolescent tale-telling online.

What's the purpose here?

Check out "playing for change" on YouTube--let's work towards more positive, healing visions.

Change means getting a grip--and cutting such junk out!

Dorrie

[J]

I wonder why anyone would call Obama and company sexist. I guess the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree.

Obama, fire this tool, NOW. Send a message that sexism will not be allowed in your administration. You turned a blind eye to it during the primaries. Are you going to turn a blind I now?

[Susan]

So. The complaints from feminists during the campaign that Obama's staff was stuffed with misogynists busy issuing sexist dogwhistles are all graphically proven true in a photo-documented instant. This is one "talented" speechwriter the new Administration should quickly learn to live without, until he grows the *hell* up.

[Tomboys]

And people ignored the few of us who were crying out about the sexism coming from that campaign. This is no surprise to me and really tells me how so many people feel about women. This is disgusting.

[Charles NJ]

Again, evidence of the blatant sexism and misogyny from the professed progressive wing of the not-so-Democratic party. This jerk should be fired.