Talk about the soft bigotry of low expectations: Alex Wagner has made the case that Barack Obama is no kind of emperor or dictator . . . compared to Kim Jong Un, the brutal ruler of perhaps the world's worst regime, North Korea.
Wagner was riffing off the news that Kim has banned North Korean parents from naming their children Kim Jong Un and ordered those already bearing the name to change it. After describing other elements of Kim's cult of personality, Wagner concluded: "to all the detractors who compare our American president to an emperor and a dictator, this is what a dictatorship actually looks like. And to the 169 babies born between 2007 and 2011 named Barack: you can keep your name."
We here at NewsBusters heartily agree with Alex: President Obama is no kind of dictator compared with Kim Jong Un. For starters, and unlike Kim, we are positive that our prez never had any members of his family bumped off in a bid to retain power.
Then again, there is no evidence that in violation of the laws of North Korea, Kim personally granted amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants. But we quibble. All hail President Barack Obama: much less of a dictator than Kim Jong Un!
ALEX WAGNER: There is only one Kim Jong Un and in North Korea, that's a law. By directive of the North Korean regime, the name Kim Jong Un is now off-limits to any other citizens of the secretive and repressive state. Birth certificates with the name Kim Jong Un are rejected and anyone who happens to share the supreme leader's name must change it. The order dates back to 2011 when Kim came to power after the death of his father, Kim Jong Il who incidentally participated in the very same vanity project as did his father before him.
The cult of personality is nothing new to North Koreans who are required to hang portraits of Kim's father and his grandfather on the walls of their homes and offices. North Koreans also wear lapel pins featuring their leaders and riotous applause is strongly encouraged wherever and whenever the one and only Kim Jong Un appears.
To all the detractors who compare our American president to an emperor and a dictator, this is what dictatorship actually looks like. And to the 169 babies born between 2007 and 2011 named Barack: you can keep your name. That's all for now; I'll see you back here tomorrow.
