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Broken windows at the White House
Last week I wrote an article objecting to an invitation I had received from the Obama campaign to have “some grub with POTUS.” Though I think that particular invitation demeans the presidency more than most dinner-with-the-candidate invitations, my criticism applies to both presidential candidates, since they’re both doing it. Even the local candidates for office here in Oregon are sending out these sorts of invitations.
An apparently sympathetic commenter suggested that I was trying to “turn back the clock” and must therefore be close to his 86 years of age. “Get with it or stand aside,” he urged.
I am happy to report that the octogenarian commenter has a few years on me, but I have nonetheless given serious consideration to his suggestion that I get with it or stand aside. After all, this common-folk behavior on the part of our presidential candidates (and candidates for virtually every public office) is mostly symbolic pretense intended to attract voters presumed to be common folk themselves.
Why not lighten up, go with the flow, join the 21st century? What’s the point of insisting, or just wishing, that those who aspire to be president of the United States act presidential? For that matter, what does it mean to act presidential? Maybe having grub with contributors, cracking jokes on “The Late Show with David Letterman” and hanging out with the stars in Hollywood now counts as presidential.
But that’s what worries me. When a Las Vegas fundraiser takes precedence over conferring with the leader of one of America’s staunchest and most threatened allies, when campaign demands require the president to duck in and out of the United Nations without the traditional meetings with other world leaders, the new presidential starts looking like it’s about more than politics and symbolism. Surely tradition, taste and good manners are about more than some old guy’s nostalgia for days gone by.
Annie
October 1st, 2012
Squalid; that’s the word you’re looking for. Squalid.
k r p
October 1st, 2012
betcha he takes THAT mag into the baffroom widdim
UNCLE KINK
October 1st, 2012
Yes,lucky thing he’s so “cool” cause he sucks at being President.
webby h
October 1st, 2012
uh, sorry o/t:
wow, some one actually gives a shit. thanks Jim
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/demint-no-pension-bailout/2012/10/01/id/458255
[...]
Gov. Pat Quinn of Illinois last year said part of the state’s plan to reduce its $167 billion shortfall would be to see help from the federal government. The Democrat’s plan would be for the federal government to rescue the pension program through buying the state’s bonds.
Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina is determined to stop any effort for a bailout and has joined the Illinois Policy Institute’s national “No Pension Bailout” campaign, which is trying to stop Congress from rescuing state and municipal pension plans.
[...]
Snowball the Sourpuss
October 1st, 2012
Broken windows, cracked mirrors. That place is a freaking mess!
And if that manchild is what Ebony considers cool, well my friends, they’ve really lowered the bar.
Shovel Head
October 1st, 2012
They think he’s hot shit, he does too.
But he’s just a cool turd attracting maggots.
Twellsy
October 1st, 2012
@ Shovelhead: Good one. But the one I remember is “He thinks he’s hot shit on a plate, but all he is is a cold turd on a stick.”
Shovel Head
October 1st, 2012
Twellsy
That’s a good one too. I would love to see him impaled on a stick.
Stirrin the B.S.
October 1st, 2012
“…..one hopes that if elected Romney would revert to form and bring some old-fashioned refinement to the White House, along with an old-fashioned commitment to the Constitution and the rule of law…..”
AMEN!
We don’t need Oblowme’s form of cool. We need dignity restored to the White House, just for starters.
bitterclinger
October 1st, 2012
Grub? Do they think he’s Cleavon Little in Blazing Saddles?
ERB
October 1st, 2012
Michelle did promise that our traditions would be set aside (I paraphrase)