The capital flew into a bit of a tizzy when, on his first full day in the White House, President Obama was photographed in the Oval Office without his suit jacket. There was, however, a logical explanation: Mr. Obama, who hates the cold, had cranked up the thermostat.Somebody, please, calculate the increased size of the White House carbon footprint caused by this preference for being surrounded by warm air instead of warm clothing. You're setting the thermostat, in winter, to — what? — 75°? 78°?
“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.”
January 29, 2009
Never lecture me again about global warming, Barack Obama.
The NYT reports, like it's all about fashion and personal style:
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Michelle needs to put a little meat on those bones. We sure dont want him to end up hypothermic in like that poor Bay City guy we talked about yesterday.
"He’s from Hawaii, O.K.?"
He lived in NYC for several years, then Boston and then 20+ years in America's icebox city of Chicago.
Wear wool.
May 18, 2008:
Pitching his message to Oregon's environmentally-conscious voters, Obama called on the United States to "lead by example" on global warming, and develop new technologies at home which could be exported to developing countries.
"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.
"That's not leadership. That's not going to happen," he added
Didn't he also just rib the Washington DC crowd for closing down the schools over a little ice?
Carbon footprints are for the little people.
At least Carter put on a sweater.
His daughters are tougher than he is. Just yesterday he was commenting on how his daughters thought DCers were wimps with regard to weather.
He's spending more to stimulate the economy.
Probably what they're excited about is the thing about Bush and Reagan staying fully dressed (i.e. with suit jackets) in the Oval Office as a sign of respect. Obama is rolling back another of Bush's evil policies!
Happy now, Ann? (Yes, I think I will keep asking you that.)
Pogo - you beat me to it. Also, since taxpayers pay the bills, screw the Carter sweater and crank the heat up to 80. Oh yeah, the Sun King has arrived!
Global warming hysteria is a crock, but since President Obama believes in it, he should be setting a good example. He is not.
With a warm private bathroom you'd think Barry's wants would be satisfied.
Al Gore is not amused!
I guess he did not move to Chicago for the weather.
Geez, you guys, why can't he just eat his waffle?
His thin skin is uncomfortable in the cold and easily wounded by criticism. January '09 ain't even over yet, and already he chafes.
A moisturizer can help chafing, in the cold dry winter.
Obama's Oval Office Orchids would sell for a bundle though. He could use the proceeds to pay back the "stimulous" money.
The man is going to be a never-ending source of hypocrisy on big things and small. But it will only get interesting when the media starts turning on him.
Off topic, if the GOP in the Senate would just do as their brothers and sisters did in the House and reject this moronic stimulus bill, I can see big gains for the Republicans in 2010. The thing has FAIL written all over it and it needs to be all on Barry and the Dems.
If you fully explore the possibility of establishing sustainable communities you'd see that where it has been done (in Switzerland, in Denmark)not everyone is expected to do everything in an identical fashion. Some people will drive more, some will keep warmer houses, some people will be forced to fly for work reasons. The point is that if every family took substantial measures to lead a sustainable lifestyle and if heating and cooling options were developed with renewable resources, you could have your small indulgences. The problem with us is that we like to do everything: drive big cars, avoid public transportation, use air conditioning all the time, etc etc. To hold a person accountable for his or her one preference is ridiculous. It's a package deal.
Yesterday, I thought to myself>>>
how much energy is wasted every year on all these poor insulated homes that college kids have to live in. Obama made his battle cry largest in these kind of towns.
I'm thinking grassroot efforts? What about these landlords and kids and faculty working together doing something about the deplorable waste of energy just to heat homes? I can imagine that the amount of energy wasted from really really shoddy housing that kids live in (because it is only for a year or two, right?) is enough to heat an entire village elsewhere with more energy efficent... heck... with just insulatied housing.
anyway, that year or two turns into decades when it's repeated by 8, 10, 12 students again and again and again. And this is where environmental living, eat local, diversity slogans abound????
Some people never adjust to winter. Me, I have trouble adjusting to summer.
I'm happy to see that Obama is not trying to follow Carter's lead.
The point is that if every family took substantial measures to lead a sustainable lifestyle and if heating and cooling options were developed with renewable resources, you could have your small indulgences. The problem with us is that we like to do everything: drive big cars, avoid public transportation, use air conditioning all the time, etc etc. To hold a person accountable for his or her one preference is ridiculous. It's a package deal.
Yes, package deal makes Obama look significantly worse. He knows that built into his job is an already-massive carbon footprint -- airplanes, motorcades, presidential mansion, etc. So he decides to make it even bigger, for the frivolous reason that he doesn't want to wear a jacket?
Oh Nina, I'm so happy to hear that you would allow us to have our "small indulgences" and I'm sure that you, or someone like you, would be in charge of deciding what would, and would not be on the approved list.
Oh goody, is the Church of Obama selling indulgences already?
If you don't crank down the thermostat, you never acclimate to the cold, so you have to keep the thermostat warm.
It's a vicious cycle.
I think Althouse should introduce a 'what a pussy!' label based upon this.
Some animals are more equal than others.
I'm happy to see that Obama is not trying to follow Carter's lead.
Agreed and I suspect he'd catch hell either way. Maybe keeping the air warm and moist is his version of George Carlin's bacterial-soaked river swims.
You know I'm thinking if he had to pay that heating bill he would put on a jacket and lower that thermostat. Of course he isn't paying it, we are, and like all liberals if someone else is paying for it they want more and more of it.
Maybe we all have misunderstood him. Perhaps he just wants to make sure that at a moment's notice he can rip off his suit and practice a little Bikram yoga.
TRO: Ding ding ding ding ding!
Nobody needs any more incentive to conserve than to look at their utility bills.
Some people apparently don't get utility bills. I have little doubt that they are the problem in a nutshell.
If Obama turns off the White House air conditioning this Summer, he'll more than make up for his winter energy consumption.
He’s from Hawaii, O.K.? He likes it warm.
Fingers are crossed.
Ricpic - nice Earl Butz reference, but since Michelle has had two children, we know one of the needs is not being met. Do not know if Dear Leader has loose shoes, but clearly, the third requirement is being met.
I would think beyond politics and taking sides. In a historical building with national treasures to the historian and architect and general public,moisture and temperature control is crucial. There would be an optimum humidity and temperature setting to prolong the preservation of such. RIght? Where is the historical preservation committee? Or at least the guy who's worried about the wood on a string instrument?
nina said...
"The problem with us is that we like to do everything: drive big cars, avoid public transportation, use air conditioning all the time, etc etc. To hold a person accountable for his or her one preference is ridiculous. It's a package deal."
Well, then let's make like Andrew Sullivan and contemplate Obama's package. The examples you set out don't exactly help your case that Althouse is being ridiculous in ridiculing Obama's "one preference," or even that it's one preference: I suppose that one could call a fleet of Secret Service limousines (big cars all) "public transportation" by a stretch, implying publicly-owned rather than available to the general public, but it wouldn't be the ordinary sense of the term. We've already established the heating and cooling preferences. What else do you have?
Some people will drive more, some will keep warmer houses, some people will be forced to fly for work reasons.
I don't think these are all on equal footing. Some have to drive more. Some have to fly more. But few have to have warmer houses.
But the main point is, he loses moral authority on his issue. Seems a high price to pay for leaving your jacket off.
nina --
To hold a person accountable for his or her one preference is ridiculous. It's a package deal.
That's not what Obama says, therefore it's not the level he's accountable for.
There would be an optimum humidity and temperature setting to prolong the preservation of such. RIght?
Probably the humidity is more of a factor than the temperature, particularly within the range we're talking about.
But the main point is, he loses moral authority on his issue. Seems a high price to pay for leaving your jacket off.
Well, it's sort of an artificial "loses moral authority," given that he's not really going to lose anything. People who found his fearmongering persuasive before will continue to find it persuasive. People who find his politics of division and fear divisive and fearsome will continue to find them so, and have something new to clobber him over the head with. This slight hypocrisy will not really affect his standing in most peoples' eyes. After all, Al Gore commits greater and more grievous hypocrisies every day, with his huge old country house and all his electronic toys and his plane flights, but people still look up to him as some kind of authority on environmental matters.
From the same article -- the lack of a suit reflects a refreshing new ethos in the White House!
“I’ll never forget going to work on a Saturday morning, getting called down to the Oval Office because there was something he was mad about,” said Dan Bartlett, who was counselor to Mr. Bush. “I had on khakis and a buttoned-down shirt, and I had to stand by the door and get chewed out for about 15 minutes. He wouldn’t even let me cross the threshold.”
Mr. Obama has also brought a more relaxed sensibility to his public appearances. David Gergen, an adviser to both Republican and Democratic presidents, said Mr. Obama seemed to exude an “Aloha Zen,” a kind of comfortable calm that, Mr. Gergen said, reflects a man who “seems easygoing, not so full of himself.”
Oh good grief. If it were Bush who were "more relaxed," they would say he's not taking the job seriously.
So mcg, what you're saying is, "It's not the heat, it's the humidity."
And if global warming is true, why do I have an inch-thick sheet of ice on my driveway?
Oh, the inevitable quote from David Gergen, bi-partisan suck-up.
"David Gergen, advisor to both Republican and Democratic presidents, was impressed with Chauncy Gardiner's ability to remain detached and keenly observant of all that happened around him. 'Gardiner can distill the essence of any problem and point the way to a solution with only a few simple words,' the chinless Gergen drooled."
They keep throwing softballs to the opposition...those pesky campaign sermons come back to bite him!
For instance, why would a Republican vote for that stimulus if its passage is a done deal? This will be like Bush's Iraq--an albatross around Obama and his party.
This will be like Bush's Iraq--an albatross around Obama and his party.
Well, except for the caskets.
(I think your analogy is bad).
If he says a word about my AC in the summer he can go to hell.
So far, we've heard variations on the "he is special" argument, and someone made the "historic artifacts made of wood" argument.
I make wooden musical instruments every day. I am responsible for millions of dollars of wooden musical instrument production, so I like to think I know a thing or two about wood and ambient conditions.
The main thing to worry about with fragile and/or antique wooden objects is RELATIVE humidity. Warmth high enough to "grow orchids" is NOT a necessity for any wooden object I can think of. It is, however, NOT a good idea to have really low humidity and/or large swings of relative humidity.
But 68° F. with a relative humidity of 60% is nearly ideal for any fragile wooden object, and quite warm enough for any healthy, normal person. The added benefit of relatively high humidity is that it doesn't feel as cold, so, aside from the issue of being a public example, there is no reason to have the thermostat set anywhere near the tropical flower range.
Althouse: I can't find it for the life of me, but I could swear you did a blogpost about some students living in a conservation house, or something, where showers were timed and a girl had put a picture in the shower room to encourage speedy bathing but then was given a dispensation because her hair was really, really thick or long or something.
This post, and especially nina's comment, brought THAT one to mind.
Anyone else remember that post, and maybe better details on which to search? Or am thinking of somewhere else?
nina: Wearing a jacket or sweater and turning down the heat is one of the easiest forms of conservation, really. It's hard to argue otherwise ... with certain exceptions for very small babies, old people and those with certain health issues. President Obama doesn't fall into any of those categories, nor is he an orchid. He deserves to be called on this one.
Now, as a general rule, I think nina's point has merit: no need for everyone to be a purist (or hog) about everything.
Total. Frakkking Pussy.
Only a GIRL would turn it up that high - if you cannot exist a 68o, then you have a medical condition known as "having a vagina". I bet Michelle (a/k/a Lt. Worf) can take the cold.
Reader_iam:
I think this might be the article.
Another of Mr. Brown’s seven housemates, Becky Bob-Waksberg, racked up the morning’s longest shower: Eight minutes. The house cuts Ms. Bob-Waksberg slack, Mr. Brown said, because of her thick, curly hair, which takes longer to shampo
Shouldn't they make her cut her hair? You know, for the greater good and all?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/26/education/26green.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1
It's more important to make a Statement, ya see.
More evidence that low grade BDS continues to infect the Dems and even the Oval Office.
See? *I* of the relaxed demeanor and not so full of myself (except for my waffle, my BackBerry, my need to be warm and jacketless for image's sake, my immunity from questions which number more than 8, my need to hide my birth records, my college transcripts, my state senate office records, etc.) am not George Bush.
I am Barack Obama. Who talks the talk and organizes others to walk the walk.
And don't forget to use your tire gauges.
I say 'who cares?'
Far better that he take his jacket off than his pants.
Hey, all: He won.
(I hope that becomes his Mission Accomplished moment, and that it gets trotted out continually for the next four years. Oh, the arrogance!)
Hey Reader:
"Becky Bob" is a way too funny name for the kid of a yupster.
I meet liberals who argue passionately for affirmative action, but have no black (and seldom even Asians) on their staffs. I meet liberals who argue passionately for women's rights and privately make salacious comments about the mammary gland size of various women. Now we've met a Democrat (who may not be a liberal, I admit) Secretary of Treasury who chisels on his taxes.
But somehow you'd think a passionate advocate for combatting global warming would keep the thermostat turned down.
"President Obama doesn't fall into any of those categories, nor is he an orchid."
Ooooh, I dunno.
He seems very much the hothouse flower.
Thanks, class-factotum.
Ah! Now I can pinpoint that Althouse post.
Only a GIRL would turn it up that high
Wha---? Oh, please.
"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.
"That's not leadership. That's not going to happen," he added.
This from the guy with a brand new updated limo, big food and alcohol fueled party tonight, and an Oval Office warm enough to raise orchids.
Michelle has had two children,
C-section?
Wouldn't long term smoking make you feel colder by constricting blood vessels near the skin?
My boss imposed a major change in the thermostat when he started blood pressure medication. Fine for me in the winter, not so good in the summer.
Must be cold in that empty suit, eh?
Has the Goracle commented on this event yet?
"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."
This raises the question "why the heck did he live in CHICAGO for twenty years?". If he wanted to put his degree to work in a major city with a substantial black population, why not Atlanta, or maybe Houston or Los Angeles?
I've been to Chicago. Seemed like a nice place. Interesting things to do. No way in hell would I be within the city limits between September and March.
Far better that he take his jacket off than his pants.
Quayle has a point.
Revenant --
"I've been to Chicago. Seemed like a nice place. Interesting things to do. No way in hell would I be within the city limits between September and March."
Agreed. When I contracted in Chi, walking in that wind off the lake was like someone taking a chain saw to your face. Add to that I was on crutches. Be-jeesh!
MadisonMan said...
"This will be like Bush's Iraq--an albatross around Obama and his party."
Well, except for the caskets.
(I think your analogy is bad).
That is actually a damn witty retort, MadisonMan. Well done!
(But do keep in mind that the Left's obsession with the death list makes them typically ignore the other costs of war that should be always part of the case against the perceieved benefits of any war).
1. 40,000 casualties in Iraq, including 3800 with brain damage, loss of sight in at least one eye, lower limb paralysis, loss of one or more limbs.
2. One trillion spent, mainly on IOUs to China, Japan, and Saudi Arabia.
3. The opportunity costs of that money and manpower that could have been applied to rebuilding US infrastructure or combating exploding healthcare costs.
4. The death stats you dwell on.
5. Grave diplomatic and "geopolitical power" damage to the USA....
Against
1. Liberating the noble freedom lovers of Iraq or at least paying them not to kill our troops.
2. Establishing what Bush hopes will be a "beacon of democracy". Or, as critics say, a beacon of democratic Islamism on the Iranian model..
3. A warning to any dictator that if they remain intransigent, the USA might, just might do something crazy and they will end up blown into hamburger or swinging on a rope.
4. Dealing Al Qaeda a staggering blow by a stupid decision by Binnie and Ayman al-Zawahiri to expose their ME, European, and N African networks and followers to destruction by directing them to go to Iraq. Where they did Americans damage, but nothing like what the US Army, the Marines, and US interrogators of captured AQ operatives did to AQ.
Obama just lectured us about "Wall Street" executive bonuses as well. However he has no problem cuddling up to Google CEO Schimdt who earned $6.2 Billion from stock options and then creates a dog & pony show with a $1.00 a year CEO salary.
I call bullshit.
I have no problem with people making as much money as they can, but stow the kumbayah crap after you've gotten yours.
BTW- Not to excuse Citi's stupidity or venality, they should have canceled the jet of their own volition before they accepted TARP money; but the WH and MSM know full well that the executive jet was ordered four years ago in 2005, however that doesn't fit the narrative.
If Obama turns off the White House air conditioning this Summer, he'll more than make up for his winter energy consumption.
He’s from Hawaii, O.K.? He likes it warm.
Don't hold your breath. You'll hear in the summer that "the president doesn't need the AC but keeps it on for his staff, who are not from Hawaii, as he is."
When I contracted in Chi, walking in that wind off the lake was like someone taking a chain saw to your face.
Builds character.
You know, it makes sense for Citi to have executive transport -
but did it have to be FRENCH?
There are no AMERICAN bizjet makers?
And we are trying to fluff the US economy?
Hello? McFly!?!?!?
I guess I'm a just nativist. Next thing you know I'll be helping Cedarford stuff me in the oven.
"no need for everyone to be a purist (or hog) about everything."
You're positively begging for Titus to join the discussion.
MadMan said Well, except for the caskets.
Anyone want to bet that American soldier deaths under Obama will be greater than than the deaths from the Iraq war?
Anyone want to bet that US civilian casualties will be greater under MaObama than under Booosh?
Blake:
I won't bet but I hope you are wrong.
Me, too.
No one will ever convince me that people from warmer climates use less A/C in the summer. I've been to Houston.
As someone has noted, if he were in the buff, no one in the MSM would report that he had no clothes on.
He’s from Hawaii
What next? Surfing on the Potomac?
I've been to Houston.
Friends of mine in the South used to complain to me about how folks in the rest of the country think southerners are idiots.
Every now and then I'd point out, look, your ancestors decided to move here and STAY here a good couple of centuries before anybody invented air conditioning. How smart could these people have been, really?
Well, I can empathize. I hate being cold, too. However, I run the heat at 64 to be "green". Man up, kama'aina or no.
Barack Obama the hypocrite wrote:
"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.
and then proceeds to crank the heat in his huge white house. But its not simply about the global warming angle. The other angle of course are the people around the world who are not ok about us heating our homes. What about making other people like us barack!?!
By the way, I wouldn't worry about this. If Obama were simply heating his home using gas for example I can see the outrage. But when Obama came into the white house he changed the radiators there so that they were run using hope and change, which is far cleaner and cheaper than gas or coal.So no big whoop.
Revenant --
"How smart could these people have been, really?"
As opposed to those who moved to and stayed in the ass-freezing north?
You may be friggin' uncomfortable in the south without AC, but you DIE in the north without heat.
Is it just me or does it seem like the dems will be out on their ass in record time? With the bailout debacle, daily rambling from Biden and a probable wrecked economy its going to get ugly. Reagan took a congressional pummeling in
82'during that recession, but I don't think it will compare to obama's shellacing.
"(I think your analogy is bad)."
No, I think you just hate Bush. His reign of terror is over, man. But you might want to have that BDS looked at; I think it's infected.
If he cuts, stacks and burns the damn wood, he can keep the place at whatever temperature he pleases. That's in the Constitution somewhere...isn't it?
Geez, some winter days I have to open the doors and the windows here (in upstate NY) to get the temperature below 80. Burning black locust will do that. I love black locust....it's hot! Hope the stove doesn't melt.
That wasn't meant to be racist.
Nina,
So who gets to decide who gets to fly and who gets to drive long distances and who does not. Our whole basis is on the individual liberty, not the group liberty. The individual makes the decisions as to what he will do or not do. That is the theoretical basis of our whole way of life. This is very different from places where the group or class has been the basis for living conditions. What you are asking for is a total redesign of our country to match up with a theoretical design which may work in this way but does not work so well for the whole of life. There is a reason that so much of the beneficial things of modern life originated in this country. There is a reason that so many things were invented here and developed here and manufactured here. The farther away we get from the theoretical basis this country was founded on, the more things do not work so well. This boondoggle of global warming is just another example of that.
Signs of hyponatremia - typically associated with (age related) over-exercise, sodium imbalance - carb, nicotine and/or caffeine intake.
Go see a doctor, Barry - because the problem ain't Hawaii. Left untreated; mental confusion, brain swelling, coma...
We know you've reached the mental confusion state; you're saying one thing (you won't appoint lobbyists), but doing another (appointing lobbyists).
Also, let them eat steak.
"We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times" . . .
I get it now -- he was talking about air conditioning, not heating.
I think Obama will never wear a sweater in the White House. Being "Not Jimmy Carter" is job 1 for the 2012 campaign.
(Sort of O/T) Talk about The Adoring Crowd covering for President Obama (instead of covering the news) -- I heard he tried to walk into a room at the White Houe through one of those big windows.
Think that will be as funny to everyone as the video of President Bush trying to open a DOOR in a Chinese building which was locked? He'd never been there before so of course he knew it was locked. Hahaha.
President Obama's only been in the White House 10 days. Not funny. Not reported. Not on Letterman.
The Rules are Simple. They're Different.
Prez Barry should wear a Cardigan like his hero President Jimma Carter. That would make a great setup for his coming "Malaise" fireside chat!
Cheching my ASHRAE Handbook, and a handy site with a thermal comfort calculator[link below, have fun], and the following assumptions, we can make a guess as to the temperature he chose, then a wilder guess as to the CO2 increase.
The only scenario that fits the cover story is that Obama was wearing his suit jacket, thought it was chilly and cranked up the heat a bit higher than necessary, and as often happens when we're impatient to get the heat and trying to warm up a room quickly, it got too warm. Thus he took off his jacket to be more comfortable, instead of turning down the heat.
The other [worse for him] option is he never wore the jacket in the first place, and finding it chilly, decided to crank up the heat instead of putting on his suit jacket. [or sweater, as Jimmy Carter might insist]
So, assuming he started at 68F(20C) and that the room was at a nice 40% humidity, and was wearing the jacket (1 clo unit), the nearest scenario to yield the "now it's too hot, I'll take off my jacket, ahh, that's better" would be cranking the heat to 28C (82F), which would yield a comfort level a bit on the warm side of "neutral" and then go back to exactly neutral with removal of a jacket and reducing the clo value to 0.7 (dress shirt and slacks)
The thermal comfort calculator
http://www.healthyheating.com/solutions.htm
Calculating the CO2 impact would require far more data ont the room and the heating efficiency, adn just how often Obama does this. But plenty of carbon footprint websites tell us that lowering our winter thermosta just 1 degree C will cut our heating bill by 5% of so. Though going in reverse, for each degree higher you go, the energy usage per degree goes up [less efficiency, heaters actually running longer, proportionally more energy leaking through the walls] So let's be chartiable and say boosting your thermostat by 8 degree C will raise your energy consumption by 40% over normal.
You'd think having lived in Chicago and Boston, he would know better about not wasting heat. Either he's done it all along and was too rich to care about heating bills, or is just doing it now because the taxpayers cover the bills now.
Meanwhile I often live without using the heater at all as a poor grad student [studying environmental engineering] in Osaka's fairly mild [about 35F-45F] winters. If the room is a mere 58F, a fleece jacket eliminates the need for any heating at all, although perhaps the fuming over my empty wallet vs. AlGore's hosueboat while I actually am doing research to make the world more energy efficient is what keeps me warm.
78 degrees in the Oval Office and Wagyu beef at $100 a plate for the key D.C. politicos.
Where's Jimmeh Carter when you need him?
Got sweater? Got burgers?
As opposed to those who moved to and stayed in the ass-freezing north?
We've had means for keeping homes warm in winter for thousands of years. But when it's 100 degrees and 90 percent humidity and there's no air conditioning... there is no escape.
Heat is far worse than cold. So very much worse.
You may be friggin' uncomfortable in the south without AC, but you DIE in the north without heat.
By the way -- since you seem to be unaware of it -- people die from the heat every year. Many more so, in the pre-AC years. It is a particular problem with the elderly and with children.
As bad as his global warming hypocrisy may appear, I think the jaunty "he's from Hawaii" is a deflection and a cover.
The truth is more unnerving: He doesn't give a rat's ass about the Office of the President of the United States, it means nothin' to him.
We've heard it from the beginning, like being willing to talk to any despot to show the United States is nothin' special.
Create for him the Office of President of the World, now, or the Universe, a throne room more befitting his true stature, and he might just suit up. A ermine cape perhaps?
Buy the man a snuggie for Christ sake. Problem solved.
blake said...
MadMan said Well, "except for the caskets."
Anyone want to bet that American soldier deaths under Obama will be greater than than the deaths from the Iraq war?
Yeah, I'd take that bet, because Obama has learned how stupid it would be for us to invade Iran and take massive casualties, just for Israel's benefit.
And Obama has been told rather forcefully that his campaign talk to invade Pakistan's teritory would also be stupid beyond words...unless Pakistan collapses and we have no choice but to back India's emergency play....Meaning war may be necessary to neutralize a Pakistan in the hands of violent Islamists. (and for those arguing that Iran is no different than an imploded Pakistan, sorry, apples and oranges...)
And the fixation on just deaths minimizes the price of war. We have just 4200 deaths from Iraq and Afghanistan, 3/4ths caused by the enemy..others accident, disease, suicide, friendly fire...
Versus 43,000 casualties. 10,000 grievously wounded, with 3800 severely maimed.
Non-military think of war's cost in terms of only deaths. People in the military think of costs in terms of casualties and long separations of those that avoid being casualties, from their families.
Stephanie said...
Anyone want to bet that US civilian casualties will be greater under MaObama than under Booosh?
I reject anyone's belief that a civilian casualty or life lost is more tragic than the death of a US soldier and a bigger loss. If anything, a young male or female soldiers life is a greater loss because they each represent a person with better health, better ability to contribute to society, with more years lost and wasted if they die - than the average US civilian.
The Bush Administration had 3,000 US civilian casualties and 42,000 military ones. Unless the Obama Administration really screws up, I expect those numbers to be sharply reduced in the years after BUsh and the Neocons.
Is it just me or does it seem like the dems will be out on their ass in record time?
With respect, no, it doesn't. Further, no evidence has emerged thus far to indicate even that they're more likely than not to be ejected in the *average* course of time. Tendency toward projection and the rushing of time does not a solid base for prediction make.
I spent the winter of 1968-69 at Great Lakes Naval Station in boot camp, marching back and forth on the "grinder" (slang for the drill field) in DAMNED cold weather.
I don't believe his crap about "being from Hawaii". He was ALSO from Indonesia, a place that makes Hawaii feel cold by comparison. (I know; I spent three years in the Philippines and then moved to Hawaii, and froze my butt off in Honolulu.)
Nina, yes there'll be differences. Nobody is disputing that. But let's get something straight. Nobody is complaining about the temperature Obama keeps, nor the private jet Gore uses to crisscross the globe. Honestly, refusing not to fall in line behind someone who themselves doesn't follow their own admonishments is one thing, and despising being continuously berated in dramatic certain terms by straight up hypocrites is another. The audience is forfeited.
I have a very high tech thermostat in my house. It has programs for winter and summer to maximize energy efficiency. The previous owner installed it.
I read the manual - yes, my thermostat has a manual - and found that it has a HOLD function. So, in the winter it's HOLD at 72, and in the summer it's HOLD at 78.
Since it's just me in a palatial 1,327 SF three-bedroom, I figure the planet can afford it.
72 to 78 is all the change I can believe in.
"I'm happy to see that Obama is not trying to follow Carter's lead."
Just wait till you see his foreign policy...
Nina said: The problem with us is that we like to do everything: drive big cars, avoid public transportation, use air conditioning all the time, etc etc
Your list didn't include jetting to other parts of the world on a regular basis. Shouldn't it?
the healthy heating site was great. I am just wondering if there is a site to measure how i stand on my heating carbon footprint. That is, I know i use about 120 kwh per month on lighting, refrigeration and everything but heat cause that's what i use in the summer and i don't use airconditioning. (okay the fridge workks a little harder in the summer, but that is just maybe 10 kwh. I use about 6 whatever units converted by that therm factor thingy to 6.05 whatever units of gas for cooking and hot water steady the year round.
So beyond that I want to know what the average person and plus the average 50 year old female (since i read the thing about female transitioners*) uses in the united states for comfort control in heating and cooling both gas and electricity combined just in their home combined and where i actually stand. Maybe I can put it in my craigslist divorced/white/female ad under hotness factor.
I was just telling my son I know we use lots more paper products for female hygiene. We wipe more and have different plumbing.
"Somebody, please, calculate the increased size of the White House carbon footprint caused by this preference for being surrounded by warm air..."
Was he ever anything other than hot air?
Far better that he take his jacket off than his pants.
Call me cynical, but I'm going to wait and see on that one.
Barack Obama is the third young Democrat in the White House in the past fifty years. The previous two were big-time womanizers, weren't they?
I've seen no evidence, of any sort, that President Obama is not faithful to his wife... but the Presidency will throw lots of temptations at him, and he doesn't strike me as the sort to curb his appetites very well. (Let me add that his rock-star status makes both Kennedy and Clinton look like wallflowers.)
So I'll go on record, now, predicting a sex scandal involving President Obama sometime in the next four years. I very much hope that I'm wrong about this.
respectfully,
Daniel in Brookline
We've had means for keeping homes warm in winter for thousands of years. But when it's 100 degrees and 90 percent humidity and there's no air conditioning... there is no escape.
You build properly, you use windows and you hang out on the porch.
You getting buyer's remorse yet, Ann?
"Aloha Zen"?
Dude. "Jacket Off."
"Aloha Zen"?
Whoa, will Obma wave the "Shaka" when he's in Italy? That might be the "zen" to do.
Wait! Wait! (Isn't that the name of a radio program?)
The Oval Office (and the WHite House) is really the Orchid Station on the island.
President Obama is part of the Dharma Initiative.
That explains everything.
Weird guy: "St-ah-ah-p, st-ah-ah-p (sob!) Leave Barack alone!!!"
Me: We've elected Leona Helmsley - only the little people obey the rules.
Obama to Althouse: "I won".
End of discussion.
C4: I reject anyone's belief
--Generally, yes.
that a civilian casualty or life lost is more tragic than the death of a US soldier and a bigger loss. If anything, a young male or female soldiers life is a greater loss because they each represent a person with better health, better ability to contribute to society, with more years lost and wasted if they die - than the average US civilian.
Cedarford, this is one of those examples of your skewed value system. It could be said that a soldier is more valuable, in the sense of a more useful cog in the machine, to society, than an innocent little lambikins, mommy or codger.
However I should have thought it pretty obvious that the soldier VOLUNTEERS to put himself in harm's way, IN ORDER TO protect civilians and the homefront. (The draft is an interesting variable to this equation. Yet society decides the optimax distribution of expendable citizens and puts them in this role. 18-25yos are actually pretty expendable.)
You never got back to me on what you think a hero is. Seeing the above one can only wonder what your answer would be.
In truth your perception is probably skewed because, as an Air Force veteran (right?) you anticipated a low risk of death.
Blogger Korla said...
You getting buyer's remorse yet, Ann?
11:02 AM
I already asked her that; she don't answer. I think there should be a "Happy now?" tag because I bet there will be lots of these little disappointments.
Actually, I think the current events bear out Althouse's vote pretty well.
-> If McCain had been elected, he'd still have put out a stimulus bill.
-> What it lacked it Democrat pork, it would more than make up in Rep pork.
-> Reps would be voting for it rather than rediscovering their fiscally prudent roots.
blake,
And your basis for those statements is??
McCain and the other Reps behavior between 2002 and 2006?
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