Obama loses his cool during speech when pesky fly assails him

Don’t you wish sometimes you were a fly on a wall in the White House?
One brazen little insect did one better Thursday, landing on the forehead of President Obama as he announced his nominees to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The normally stoic commander-in-chief appeared visibly distracted with the bothersome bug buzzing around him. At one point, Mr Obama even noted, ‘This guy’s bothering me here.’

This was not the newly re-elected president’s first encounter with pesky pests.
In 2008, Mr Obama was flipping burgers on a grill for a photo-op while campaigning in Iowa when he was swarmed by flies, according to the L.A. Times.

But the most memorable insect-related moment in his presidency to date came in 2009, when Obama killed a fly during an interview with CNBC at the White House.

‘Get out of here,’ Obama said as the fly buzzed him during his interview. The pest persisted, and when it landed on his left forearm, Obama smacked it, according to Reuters.

‘Now, where were we?’ the president said without missing a beat. Pleased with himself, he added, ‘That was pretty impressive, wasn’t it? I got the sucker.’

Several observers in the room gave congratulatory shout-outs. Obama pointed to the floor and instructed an obliging cameraman to get a close-up of the tiny corpse.

Many animal rights activists, however, were not amused by the president’s prowess. 
PETA wasted no time issuing a statement sternly scolding the commander-in-chief for taking an innocent life, and even sent him a humane Bug Catcher.

‘We believe that people, where they can be compassionate, should be, for all animals,’ PETA spokesman Bruce Freidrich explained at the time.

This time around, however, the fly took its revenge for its fallen brethren.
As it circled around the president during his speech introducing Mary Jo White as the nominee for the SEC chairmanship, Obama tried to squish it, but to no avail.    

One can speculate that perhaps the 51-year-old president’s catlike reflexes have dulled over the past four years, or perhaps he is still trying to recover from his raucous inauguration festivities.