Andy Card, Bush's chief of staff, thinks Barack Obama is disrespecting the office. It's about dress code, evidently. (Parenthetically, it also seems Barack doesn't require the piping of "Hail To The Chief" every time he enters a room; I just read that today, and now I can't find the link!) Like Bush, he starts on time. Unlike Bush, he works as long as it takes.
So George Bush, by virtue of wearing a coat and tie and demanding same of his staff, and despite making a mockery of The Constitution, ruining the economy, ignoring Congressional law, starting ill-advised wars, "respects" the office, even as he tried to make it into a monarchy.
And Barack Obama, who sometimes eschews the coat and doesn't demand bowing and scraping, who shows nothing but seriousness of purpose, doesn't.
Really, Bush apologists live in another dimension. It's about the clothes. Guess my mother was right.
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When I read about the lack of suit and tie requirement in the Oval Office, my initial reaction was a chuckle.
ReplyDeleteSeriously...who the hell cares if he takes off his coat to work??
Hey people, how about we worry a bit more about the state of our nation rather than if Mr. Obama wants to kick off his shoes under the desk when he is on the phone with some a$$hole world leader trying to work on important issues.
Card, a leader in the domestic terrorist Republican party of course lobs image brigade IEDs at the enemy - the US.
ReplyDeleteHe's only signaling his fellow Confederate terrorists. Rational people will see it for the racist code word rant that it is.
I gave you a shout out for blog amnesty day, not that you need it.
Once again, this is the Bush team trying to polish up his legacy- they're down to "well people always looked professional" now. No, Bush did not require everyone to always wear a jacket and tie. Check out the picture:
ReplyDeletehttp://latimesblogs.latimes.com/presidentbush/2008/08/forged-document.html
Nancy B.
Jebus Haploid Kraist.
ReplyDeleteI'd never heard of Card, I'm afraid, until I was linked to this yesterday:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp4MYii7MqA
It's a start.
Well, W was first to suspend the playing of Hail. Maybe BO could work as long as it takes to get some help to Kentucky. Where is FEMA? Why isn't BO responding? Is he too busy with changing the dress code?
ReplyDeleteBO has his jacket off because he keeps the thermostat high. But didn't he tell us we can't heat our homes the way we'd like and expect the rest of the world to say Okay?
ReplyDeleteAnonmyous: 1) actually, it was Carter.
ReplyDelete2) Sources?
"We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times ... and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK," Obama said.
ReplyDeletehttp://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5h-wpxs1Re-8vx2Zk5xnYygW1W67w
“He’s from Hawaii, O.K.?” said Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, David Axelrod, who occupies the small but strategically located office next door to his boss. “He likes it warm. You could grow orchids in there.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/29/us/politics/29whitehouse.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss
Okay, you win: it IS about the clothes.
ReplyDeleteWell, I'm sure it's comforting for those in Kentucky who are freezing to death to know that BO has it warm and comfortable. Maybe after the game he'll game over to FEMA to see if they've heard of Kentucky.
ReplyDeleteSee, here's how blogging (or, for that matter, rational conversation or even acrimonious discourse) works: one person makes a point. The other person responds to THAT POINT. In your world, someone says "blue" and you respond "potato." Admittedly, yours is the typical right-wing approach: no meaningful response to the topic at hand, so change the subject. Or take the "I know you are but what am I" approach. Anything but addressing the topic at hand in a manner directly responsive. It is, you might be able to know, a little tiresome.
ReplyDeleteIf you think the absence of a coat disrespects the office of president more than, say, destroying the credibility (and credit) of the entire nation, then make the argument. I'm willing to listen. If you want to talk about thermostats, go here. Or here.
Sorry if I handed you more ideas than your head can hold at once.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with Card. Wearing/not wearing a jacket doesn't affect the office. (Parenthetically, not wearing pants was Clinton's disrespect.)
But you actually made a few points, which should all be up for grabs. This is in addition to your one, constant, overriding point, the point of every post: that you hate Bush. Yes, we get that.
Your quick note about Hail makes it sounds like Bush required it. He didn't, and canceled it at most events.
I point out that David Axelrod, Obama's political adivsor, and the first pol advisor to have an office in the West Wing (what? closer than Karl Rove?) says it's not the dress code--it's that Obama keeps it hot in the office.
But I'd still like your thought on that--Obama said we can't do that--but he does it. Heat for him, none for Kentucky. Where's FEMA?
Okay, I give up. I can play ping-pong, too:
ReplyDelete1) FEMA and Kentucky.
2) Axelrod made a joke.
3) Unlike Rove, who cared only about politics, he's much more than a political advisor.
As a woman from the 1950s, I like more business dress -- but wouldn't dream of chiding business casual on the POTUS in 2009.
ReplyDeleteMy husband used to wear a suit and tie to work every day when he was in sales and marketing. Gradually, through the decades, he migrated to software analyst positions, and it was casual wear pretty much all the time, usually a sweatshirt and jeans.
In retirement, the only time I think I'll see him in a suit is at a funeral -- but not his own, that's for sure. We either get cremated or we donate our bodies to OHSU's cadaver program, if they will accept us.
Off topic: Just a little medical side note to David Axelrod. Heat tolerance does not necessarily go along with where you were raised.
ReplyDeleteI am a heat-INtolerant woman who keeps the thermostat at 68 degrees in summer and winter, and I spent 28 years growing up in Miami, Florida (my parents choice of a residence, not mine).
I also struggle with hyperhydrosis (extra sweating) at any temperature above 70 degrees fahrenheit, unless it is really dry. Go figure.
If I were in the White House, I'd be cranking up the air conditioning in their sweltering summers. Maybe Barack won't even need airconditioning.
I married a man who was born and raised in Boston and he hates the cold.
Axelrod appears to be citing a common bit of medical disinformation, that "the blood thins when people move to a hot climate." Not true.
Dr. Sid, what gland controls the perception of heat? It's right on the tip of my tongue, and I have discussed this LOW THERMAL phenomenon with physicians and can't remember it right now.
Have a good Monday.
Hypothalamus?
ReplyDeleteAs to the heat of the Oval Office. Don't really know whether Axelrod was joking or not. But, hey: the President also gets a 747 whenever he wants it; a big helicopter, secret service guys. It's sort of specious to imply the pres needs to behave like the rest of us. Congress shamed the auto guys into driving to Washington. Doubt anyone will say the Pres needs to fly coach, commercial. Likewise, if he needs the temperature of his office where he needs it, I'm not thinking it's a national issue.
But for those who want him to fail, you gotta take what you can get.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/winter_storm_outages
ReplyDelete"Smith said FEMA has been a no-show so far.
"I'm not saying we can't handle it; we'll handle it," Smith said. "But it would have made life a lot easier" if FEMA had reached the county sooner, he said."
Your FEMA link is from yesterday. But the storm has been crippling Kentucky since last Wednesday:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jv320qXrVAVFqDYU3nglqZySw6YgD95VUUMG0
FEMA works for BO, right? Does he have any responsibility here? Remember Katrina? Bush's fault?
1) the article was from yesterday, but listed action taken for several days.
ReplyDelete2) I was waiting for the "blame Obama" part. Didn't disappoint. I'm sure you were among those that refrained from blaming any of Bush's problems on Clinton, right? From day one, everything on the new guy's watch is his and has nothing to do with the last guy, right? 9/11, for example? The recession of 2001? Whatever it took Bush eight years to f#ck up, Obama must make right in eight days. Got ya. Consistent.
I don't think Bush is to blame for the cold in Kentucky, nor for the hurricane in LA. BO does control FEMA, though, and he's not doing very well, at least according to the standard set by the left during Katrina. They blamed Bush for everything.
ReplyDeleteObama waited many days--people died. Poor judgment, it seems like.
Hope he's nice and warm, though.
Obama waited many days
ReplyDeleteOther than the fact that that's incorrect, it's correct.