Obama doesn't know Snooki (does he?)

Jul 29, 2010 — USA Today

President Obama didn't just talk about education and the economy today at the National Urban League.

There was also Snooki.

Snooki -- real name Nicole Polizzi -- is featured on the MTV reality show, The Jersey Shore, which follows the hijacks at a New Jersey group house near the beach; the highly bronzed Snooki has been outspoken about the tax on tanning salons that was included in President Obama's sweeping health care law.

This morning, Obama referenced Snooki in discussing how he hopes to making teaching a more high-profile profession.

I want some teachers on the covers of some of those magazines. Some teachers on MTV, featured. I was on The View ... and somebody asked me who Snooki was. I said, I don't know who Snooki is ... but I know some really good teachers that you guys should be talking about.

Well, the president may not know Snooki, or other members of the Jersey Shore cast -- but he has talked about them before.

Flash back to the White House Correspondents Association Dinner on May 1. In joking about the little known provisions of the health care bill, Obama spoke of three Jersey Shore residents and a certain well-known Republican lawmaker.

This next provision is called the Jersey Shore-Up. It reads: "The following individuals shall be excluded from the indoor tanning tax within this bill." Snooki, J-WOWW, the Situation, and House Minority Leader John Boehner.

Of course, this doesn't prove Obama knows Snooki -- the joke was about the remarkably well-tanned Boehner.