Comic upsets Obama supporters

The comic joked about having a black First Lady who would always be nagging at her husband, and warned Obama, who was in the audience, that he would always be the target of rumours: ‘They are going to say things like, you know, you was in the club with Lil’ Kim and you and Kanye West got in a fist fight.’

But it was his use of the word ‘ho’ that most upset the Democrats at the $2,300-a-head dinner in Chicago.

‘It’s not funny. Let’s get Barack on,’ a heckler shouted from the crowd. Mac replied: ‘Calm down.’

When the presidential hopeful did take to the stage, he made his own comment about Mac’s ten-minute routine.

‘We can‘t afford to be divided by race. We can’t afford to be divided by region or by class and we can‘t afford to be divided by gender, which by the way, that means, Bernie, you’ve got to clean up your act next time,’ Obama said. ‘This is a family affair.

‘By the way, I’m just messing with you, man.’

After the fundraiser ended, Obama’s spokeswoman Jen Psaki said: ‘Senator Obama told Bernie Mac that he doesn’t condone these statements and believes what was said was inappropriate.’

Published: 13 Jul 2008