COMMENTARY | Comedian and Obama impersonator Reggie Brown seemed to only be trying to give the political parties equal time while doing his routine at the Republican Leadership Conference (RLC) in New Orleans over the weekend. He had the crowd roaring with laughter at his off-color Obama jokes. However, the roar turned to outraged booing when he started telling jokes about the 2012 Republican presidential contenders.
Hired for his spot-on impersonation of President Barack Obama, Reggie Brown was sure to be a hit at the RLC. And he was -- at first. According to the New York Daily News, Brown strode onto the stage with "Born in the USA" playing in the background, a slap at the birther movement controversy that had given the President such a difficult time until he petitioned the state of Hawaii to release the long form of his certificate of live birth, thus discrediting the conspiracy theorists that have claimed that he was born in Kenya or somewhere else outside the United States.
Brown told the crowd that his favorite month was February because of Black History Month. He admitted that he only celebrated half the month (a dig at Obama's mixed heritage -- Obama's mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, was, of course, white).
The comedian also talked about the rapid aging process presidents seemed to go through while in the White House. He then produced a "time-lapse" photo of what Obama and his wife, Michele, would look like in the future. The picture was a still shot of comedian Redd Foxx and actress Lawanda Page, the famous feuding in-laws from TV's "Sanford and Son."
The crowd of Republicans erupted with laughter.
But then Brown switched to poking fun at the Republicans running for office. He went after former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and his recent staff resignation incident, saying that his advisors were "dropping faster than Anthony Weiner's pants in an AOL chatroom."
He then nailed Mitt Romney in a polygamy joke and said the reason former Minnesota governor wasn't at the Conference was because he was "getting his foot surgically removed from his mouth," a direct jab at Pawlenty's hedging over his own coined term "Obamneycare" at last week's New Hampshire Republican Presidential Debate. Brown said placatingly, "Don't worry: it's covered under Obamneycare. Along with spinal transplants."
The booing had begun well before Brown took aim at Rep. Michele Bachmann. He didn't get through his first line before his microphone went dead and music began to play to drown him out.
It appears that the humor found at the expense of the President was preferable to that found in conjunction with the gathering's fellow Republicans. Brown quickly learned that he wasn't performing at the White House Correspondents Dinner.
The incident strangely reflected the mood of the Republican conference, where the speakers repeatedly went after the President and his policies with angry and inflammatory remarks. Newt Gingrich even called the President a "national secular European socialist" and the "opposite of freedom." Sticking to red meat political topics, the speakers ignored the entreaties of two of their number from earlier in the conference. Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal and Mississippi governor Haley Barbour both told the gathering that they should not focus everything on Obama, but use a broader strategy to win in 2012.
It is as yet uncertain what Reggie Brown's plans hold for the future (except that he won't be doing any more Republican functions), but it is very likely that he will soon appear on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "The Colbert Report," not to mention possibly being tapped to do a few Democratic conferences. Because somebody has to assuage the public's curiosity about how that Michele Bachmann joke ends.
