Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Get Your Feet Off The Desk!

It was said that Ronald Reagan never took off his suit jacket in the Oval Office out of respect for the Office of the Presidency.

Richard Nixon and George H.W. Bush had similar philosophies according to Bob Greene's Presidential book, Fraternity: A Journey In Search of Five Presidents.

George W. Bush had a rule that he and his staff were to wear their suit jackets for any meetings in the Oval Office.

I don't know about Bill Clinton's rule on wearing his jacket in the Oval Office but we know he left himself uncovered in other areas.

That brings us to Barack Obama.









A few observations.

That desk that President Obama has his shoes on was built from the timbers of the HMS Resolute and was a gift from Queen Victoria to President Rutherford B. Hayes.  It is considered a national treasure and has been used by Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and every President since Jimmy Carter.

There certainly doesn't appear to be too much consideration for the "respect of the office" in looking at these shots.

With as much work as President Obama has ahead of him on so many issues it doesn't seem that he should be putting his feet up on the desk quite yet.

There also seems to be something fundamentally wrong about anyone who is living in a house owned by someone else treating the furniture that way, doesn't it?

President Obama, is it too much to ask to get your feet off the furniture since you don't own the place?

4 comments:

  1. Did you use a Google images search to see whether any other presidents put their feet up on the desk in the Oval Office? Took me 5 seconds to find a few of Bush II and Ford.

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    1. The operative word is a FEW. I did search for feet on the desk as well as jackets off. I did see one of Ford and two of Bush. By the way, both times they had their jackets on.

      There were many,many more of Obama.

      For the record, I also saw a couple images of Reagan and Bush II in the Oval Office without a jacket and tie. Both appeared to be on the weekend for their Saturday radio address with no other one present.

      You are not trying to justify poor behavior but looking at other poor behavior, are you? In particular by looking at George W. Bush as a reference for Barack Obama? I would hope not.

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    2. Point taken -- poor behavior is poor behavior. It gives the appearance of disrespect for the office (and the Office). But it seemed to be ad hominem to focus on Obama. All politicians in the modern era try to cultivate a more relaxed, accessible Everyman style from time to time. Harder to do when you don't have a ranch at which to hang out.

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