Obama threw in a few ‘Godfather II’ jokes at the Lake Tahoe Summit

STATELINE — President Barack Obama might have been all business in discussing climate change during his visit to Lake Tahoe on Wednesday, but he managed to throw in a few jokes at the Tahoe Summit.

At one point in his remarks, Obama mentioned the movie “The Godfather: Part II,” which includes scenes filmed at the lake. He said it was “maybe my favorite movie.”

“As I was flying over the lake, I was thinking about Fredo (Corleone),” Obama said to laughter from the 8,000 or so attendees at the event. “It’s been written that the lake’s waters were once so clear that when you were out on a boat, you felt like you were floating in a balloon. Unless you were Fredo.”

Fredo ends up dead during a scene filmed on the lake.

Obama said it was his first trip to Lake Tahoe, and that he fully intends to visit and spend more time than his brief appearance on Wednesday allowed.

“… it’s not like I didn’t want to come,” he said. “Nobody invited me. I didn’t know if I had a place to stay. So now that I’ve finally got here, I’m going to come back.

“No, it’s true,” Obama said. “It’s OK. I mean, I’m still going to — I’m going to be coming around, I told you. I just won’t have Marine One. I’ll be driving.”

Contact Sean Whaley at swhaley@reviewjournal.com or 775-461-3820. Follow @seanw801 on Twitter.