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"FacebookPinterestKanye obama norm.jpg\n\n What to make of the gripping news from The Atlantic that President Obama stands by his assessment that Kanye is \"a jackass\"? If you're someone who can't get enough of the regular-guy, Al-Green-singing, Wire-loving, dad-jeans-on-the-weekend Obama, the exchange below is probably headed directly to your Tumblr. If, on the other hand, you're someone who goes berserk every time it's proven that Obama hangs out in fancy Manhattan restaurants, clinks glasses with the one-percenters he's so keen on taxing, and drops pop culture references in a self-congratulatory manner, then, well, this is probably headed straight to your Tumblr, too. As for the underlying question of Yeezy vs. HOVA, we'll borrow from the Chief Ecutive's energy policy and vote for an all-of-the-above strategy.\n\nSo here is the president of the United States, enjoying canap&amp;amp;#xC3;&amp;amp;#xA9;s and small talk at Daniel, chef Daniel Boulud's gourmet restaurant just off Park Avenue, with the right touch of upscale-whorehouse decor and enough Alice Waters in the kitchen to make it the place where every Wall Street guy takes his wife on bonus night. The drill for tonight is two fund-raisers at Daniel, to be followed by an even more intimate sit-down dinner at Spike Lee's house, before the motorcade heads uptown to the Apollo, in Harlem, where Barack Obama once lived in a ratty student apartment, less than 50 blocks but light-years away from the perfumed dining room where he is answering questions and posing for pictures and name-checking Ralph Ellison and Saul Bellow. I get my chance to ask him the question of the moment, the question that everyone who has bought the album or spent $150 on a concert ticket wants answered. \"I have a question I want to ask you, Mr. President,\" I venture, once I catch his attention.\n\n\"Sure,\" the president says.\n\n\"Kanye or Jay-Z?\"\n\nThe president smiles. \"Jay-Z,\" he says, as if the answer should be obvious. When it comes to the most meaningful pop-cultural divide of the moment, the question of whether you prefer Kanye West or Jay-Z\u2014the top two hip-hop artists in the world, who recently joined forces for a national mega-tour called Watch the Throne\u2014Barack Obama is clearly a Jay-Z guy. Jay-Z is about control. Jay-Z is about success. He's a natural-born leader. He is married to Beyonc&amp;amp;#xC3;&amp;amp;#xA9; Knowles, the gorgeous, sugar-spun R&amp;amp;B star who recently joined with Michelle Obama in a public campaign against the epidemic of childhood obesity. Together, Jay and Beyonc&amp;amp;#xC3;&amp;amp;#xA9; are worth something close to $1 billion. Jay-Z fills arenas and enunciates clearly\u2014unlike Kanye West, who jumps onstage and interrupts during award ceremonies, cries on talk shows, and jets off to Rome to apprentice with the House of Fendi. Besides, the president's smile says, we are at a fund-raiser in New York, which is Jay-Z's hometown.\n\n\"Although I like Kanye,\" Obama continues, with an easy smile. \"He's a Chicago guy. Smart. He's very talented.\" He is displaying his larger awareness of the question, looking relad, cerebral but friendly, alive to the moment, waiting for me to get to the heart of the matter.\n\n\"Even though you called him a jackass?,\" I ask.\n\n\"He is a jackass,\" Obama says, in his likable and perfectly balanced modern-professorial voice. \"But he's talented.\" The president gives a wink, poses for a few more pictures, and then glides away to meet with the rich Manhattan lawyers in the other room, leaving behind a verdict that he intended to be funny, and also entirely deliberate: even before an audience of one, the leader of the free world is still not letting Kanye West off the hook.\n\nRead more on Death Race 2012\n\n[\"Mitt Romney Is The New Al Gore\"\n\n](http://www.gq.com/news-politics/blogs/death-race/2012/04/mitt-romney-is-the-new-al-gore.html)\n\n\"Back When The Clintons Looked Cool: Bill and Hillary in the '70s\"\n\n\"The End of Empathy: Walter Kirn on The Race Between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney\"\n\nFollow @GQPolitics on Twitter for more updates on the campaign trail"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.gq.com/story/obama-still-thinks-kanye-is-a-jackass-but-talented>