RW assholes is what I say.

All you need to know about NC BBQ is that I was a vegetarian when I arrived in the US.  DH and I went to a Wedding rehearsal dinner at a Baptist Church and I was starving, the dinner consisted of BBQ pulled pork, potato salad and baked beans.  One mouthful of those three things together on the same fork and I was hooked.  If you had told me that prior to my move to the US that I would be eating a roasted pig I would have told you that you were nuts.  NC DOES have great BBQ.

I had really tasty BBQ in Charlotte when I was there, so THEY LIE!  (Like we didn’t know that already!).

She didn’t say “the best.” She said their shitty town had “great” BBQ.

So, the scary part is the hometown paper is so racist, they are willing to demean the BBQ proprietors in their own city (“You have to go out of town to get get good food!”) for a chance to hatefuck the Obamas. Wow.

I think it was wildly successful. ...

In related news, contrary to what Stephen Tyler of Aerosmith says, Charlotte does not in any conceivable sense of the word rock, and they definitely haven’t, by any objective measure, been a good crowd tonight.

Furthermore, considering how ugly the average resident of Charlotte is, his shout-out to all the pretty ladies in the house to make some noise was just cruel.

“Everybody knows to get the best stuff, you gotta drive north to Lexington,” the board added.

A local Associated Press reporter quoted a barbecue expert, retired University of North Carolina professor John Shelton Reed, who said that Charlotte for barbecue was “like Minneapolis for gumbo.”

Lexington is an hour away from Charlotte.  That’s the exact distance that New Orleans is from Minneapolis!

My comment at the Observer was pretty much to reiterate what PWC said above, adding:

“I hope that Michelle also compliments your city on its fresh air, prompting all of you to hold your breath until you die.”

It’s so pathetic - she gave a compliment, and it was accurate, since she didn’t say “best in the entire state.”  It is funny, though, how right-wingers keep on obsessing about food this way - BBQ, mustard, arugula, cheez whiz… I guess when they can’t prove their manhood by yelling that soldiers should die on their behalf, they prove it by eating.

the comments at the politico site—which I read excerpted somewhere else—were just horrifically racist.  I thought I was inured to the ugliness of the Anti-Obama/Anti-Michelle stuff but reading what the teabaggers are saying was like watching a 17th century Bedlamite shrieking in a pile of vomit and piss.  There are people out there—a lot of them—who simply can’t reconcile themselves to the idea that the country is currently headed by a black man and an incredibly strong and dynamic black woman.  In the abstract, during the course of an ordinary life, that can seem hyperbolic or reductionary but when you read all caps “out of the white house you two illegals: barry soetero and his ugly wife!!!!!!” you grasp that you are dealing with some seriously diseased minds.

aimai

Well put, aimai. Yikes.

the comments at the politico site—which I read excerpted somewhere else—were just horrifically racist.

Unless you want to be really outraged, you’ll want to avoid both the post and comments (Wookie references are so 2008) at JammyWearingFool (approvingly linked by Col. Mustard), and pretty well any of the lockstep RW blogs except—funnily enough—the post at Sister Toldjah (the commenters on that thread are a mixed bunch).

... at dKos, a diarist rode the Rec List all day asserting that it’s unconstitutional for the President to address a religious group ...

Given that this Prayer Breakfast’s been a constant gig for all presidents in human memory, I do hope this isn’t the first time he’s moaned about it.

YAFB, to the diarist’s credit, he says he’s been beating the drum about the NPB for years, and as a practice it’s certainly a fair target for criticism. It’s the way he pushes on from that valid concern to a broader insistence that the First Amendment is somehow violated by the president’ presence at the event which draws my scorn.

“Southern Cliche?” Are you kidding me politico? BBQ is one of the biggest parts of North Carolina culture. No matter what city you’re in.
The newspaper editors and the professor are being tongue in cheek. It’s a cultural thing, it’s just the way BBQ snobs talk about BBQ. If you want “real” BBQ, you have to go to some shack in some small ass town that may or may not have run out of food by the time you get there. It’s like hipsters and music. If you say you like something that everyone’s heard of, then you fucked up.

The funny thing is, BBQ is regional even within the same state. Someone from the part of NC I’m from (bout an hour east of Raleigh) will sneer at the idea that Lexington has real BBQ. (even though honestly, there isn’t a huge difference) That’s the whole point.
Hell, my inner snob is going off in this thread. Beef ribs? Pulled pork instead of chopped? Potato Salad instead of coleslaw? Blasphemy!

If you say you like something that everyone’s heard of, then you fucked up.

Well put, Console. I beg to differ on the idea that there’s not a whole lot of difference between regional versions of Q in NC, though.

In my experience, at least, the Piedmont folks think that runny, vinegary crap is “BBQ sauce,” whereas the rest of the state realizes that to make a proper sauce, you need to slay a good amount of tomatoes.

Somewhere, there’s a Minnesotan with a great Creole restaurant who’s really pissed right now.

(true story: best gumbo I ever had was in Louisville, KY, made by a gloriously eccentric Hong Kong native who’d lived in New Orleans while he worked as a jockey).