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The Wheels of the O Bus Go Round and Round over Gridiron Club Dinner

By LisaB on March 12, 2009 at 8:01 PM in Current Affairs

One of the side stories today is that Obama will be the first president in over 150 years not to attend the annual Gridiron Club dinner.

Since its members are all “well-known and respected” journalists, one would think BO would see this as friendly territory. I guess not. Now, I’ve not got much sympathy for disappointed Gridiron members. This kind of spat, after all, is so much like watching professional athletes fight team owners. No underdog to cheer for and it’s nauseating no matter who wins. Still, this story is interesting because the press loved them some Obama.

Mediabistro had a blurb.

A Gridiron Club member tells FBDC first that President Obama will not attend this year’s dinner next Saturday, March 21st. He will be the first president since Grover Cleveland not to attend the first Gridiron Club Dinner of his presidency.

This year’s date coincides with the spring break of President Obama’s daughters’ school and club members have been informed the Obama family will be out of town, likely in Chicago.

He did find time to attend in 2005 though.

Each year the dinner includes satirical musical skits choreographed by the members, and remarks by the president and various members of each party. President Obama spoke as a Senator at the March 2006 dinner.

Here’s how townhall saw it. Townhall is a conservative outfit, but I think they called it right here.

Although it seems like a minor thing for people outside the beltway, the dinner is a social highlight for many of the Beltway’s most prominent journalists. The President’s decision to ignore it carries with it a faint whiff of ingratitude, given that he’s received over-the-top adoring press coverage — but then again, it’s just part of a time-honored pattern of Obama stiff-arming his sycophants in the media, as he did during the campaign.

Occasions like the Gridiron Dinner represent opportunities to shore up relationships with people who can (at least on the margins) help or hurt a president. The fact that Obama isn’t taking advantage of such an opportunity demonstrates one of two things: Either he doesn’t realize the importance of such seemingly small gestures, or else, his self-confidence is such that he doesn’t believe that he needs the help of the press to succeed.

Which reason sounds right to you? Or do you think they’re headed to Lauderdale? Maybe Disney World?

  • HARP

    Give Barry a break. Screwing 310 million people can be tiring.

    • Kim

      Good one!

  • Concerned Mother

    They’re headed to Rezkoworld in inner city Chicago. Who needs good press when one has an Axelrod? Who needs protocol when one graduated from the Bill Ayers South Side of Chicago Academy of Etiquette? Who needs tradition when one learns history and morality in Reverend Wright’s God Damn AmeriKKKa Church? Who needs class when one has a fairy godmother named Rezko? Who needs to confess and to admit a mistake when one can confide in Father Pfleger?

    • lark

      Why doesn’t he send his mother in law in his stance?

      • Jim S

        Someone has to stay home to watch the kids.

  • http://deleted Buzz Latte LaRue

    Just another example of Obama’s delusional self importance. The man is an effing loser.

  • Katmoon

    No doubt they will be having chicken for dinner(snark)

  • citizenjane

    Unbelievable. What a chicken sh*#! I don’t think poor bawhacky could take the ribbing.
    Pelosi picked a prissy, pompous, petty prick for president.

    • CentralMass

      Ha ha. She was one of the selectors, wasn’t she.

    • FranSC

      “Pelosi picked a prissy, pompous, petty prick for president.”

      The main reason she chose him was she recognized he was green as grass and would need her help desperately – a good tradeoff since her goal was to become the most powerful person in Washington in addition to being ‘king maker’. Unfortunately, she has achieved both.

  • I’m a Linda too

    How pitiful of Obama to again place blame on his daughters. Except, our country can’t be on a “I want to take a break” time schedule.

    Fact is Obama takes trips and should, as PRESIDENT, when necessary. This dinner, which gives Obama a chance to show some humility and humor, of which we know he has none of, is only a dinner that he could soon return to Chicago that night or the next morning. This is not a trip to another country and, it happens to be in the very city that he currently resides, unlike his many trip for rallies and photo ops to Colorado, Florida, Arizona, etc.

    Obama, are your really hiding under the skirts of your daughters and expect everyone to accept this lame excuse again?

    • Animal Control

      He’ll use anybody and any excuse now that he is President and has to answer even mundane questions. He thinks he is above having to answer questions of any nature. Now leave him alone because he may be eating waffles on that date.

      • I’m a Linda too

        lol, exactly.

  • http://deleted Buzz Latte LaRue

    Dang! He can’t break away from the family to do his presidential duties?

    MicHELLE really does wear the jock strap in the Obama family!

  • NYSmike

    Shouldn’t the end of the Townhall article say,

    “…his self-confidence is such that he doesn’t believe that he needs the help of the press to succeed…..AGAIN!“

    • CentralMass

      Self confidence? He has Mathews and Olbermann polishing kn.b on a nightly basis. I think the media has his backside, in a very literal sort of way.

      • Ferd Berfle

        Yuck and LMAO. Words-good; visual-bad.

  • Linda C.

    Doesn’t it magnify the seemingly over importance the self indulgent press gives to itself? This isn’t important even if “the beltway” thinks it is.

    How can going to this dinner really be in the realm of “presidential duties”.

    • http://BREAKINGNEWS.COM Oisafraud

      It’s called tradition. Some thing Obama knows nothing about.

    • RobWarrior

      It’s not part of his duties. On the other hand, it is a tradition 150 years in the making. Just like his inept Protocol when dealing with Gordon Brown it shows that our current President really does not have respect for the office he now holds.

      As he talked down to the citizens during the election, it is now also apparent he looks down on the office.

      He must have a messiah complex, President isn’t good enough.

      • Animal Control

        President isn’t good enough

        You may be onto something!

      • Ferd Berfle

        He must have a messiah complex, President isn’t good enough.

        After having the extreme unfortunate luck of having to watch this shallow and callow piece of work go through the motions during the run-up to, and during, the election, I have found him to be beyond the Messiah Complex in that he:

        is arrogant to a fault,
        is dogmatic,
        is unable to really listen to the views of others,
        is ignorant of precedent,
        lacks a sense of moderation,
        does not like the word “no” for an answer,
        will not tolerate direct questions,
        sees his place in history as being more important than the time of which he is a part
        sees others as a means to achieve his own ends

        Christ, if this doesn’t sound a lot like his predecessor, then I’m a three-toed sloth.

        • lark

          Sounds like a Roman Proconsul eying the reigns of the Empire. Just saying.

          • rw

            Some one on the Telegraph Uk said Obama seems to think of himself as Caesar Africanus.

            • FranSC

              Missiah Complex? Roman Proconsul eyeing the reigns of the empire? Thinks of himself as Caesar Africanus?

              I think not. BO too often looks like the deer caught in the headlights. Both Obamas are overcompensating in their desperate efforts to keep secret how they REALLY feel which is extreme inadequacy. This is understandable since they are.

        • MN Mary

          Funny, it sure does sound like Obama, but not much like Jesus.

      • TeakwoodKite

        150 years….think about that for a moment…and you are the one to break a presidential streak like that?

        Can you say “JINX”?

        I can hear the conversation now…
        —
        MO;…”Naw naw naw naw,…your not going to stay in the white house during spring break, you are going home.”
        BO; “…but , but , ah , ah um….I don’t want to the first person in a 150 years to break the chain…”

        MO….”your pathetic as those toy helicopters, I gave Browns’ kids.You can move those goal posts all you want now! We are going back to the boneheaded Mc Mansion.”
        –
        Can it really be the end? To be stuck inside the Gridiron blues again?
        –
        And bus ride to Cartenga just got smoother with all the new human schock absorbers…

        The truth is that BO has a very thin skin and when you think about…it is a “change”.

        BO will never be a “Fiddler on the Roof” just a fiddler of the “3rd kind”.

      • I’m a Linda too

        Excellent point.

    • lark

      Yes and no because as you see he is breaking precedent. How do they call it – stare decisis. Which again means that like Bush said, fool me once and I’m a fool, fool me twice and what a complete foolish mess I become.

      No, we will hear a lot from this snobbish act. Soon the press will realize thee is nothing there there, just an empty suit.

  • http://BREAKINGNEWS.COM Oisafraud

    Well now, it’s time the press gets together and reexamines their souls for what they did during the election. Obama is turning out to be exactly like I said:
    A pompous ass (I’m tired incident)
    A clueless moron (Stimulus)
    A classless idiot (Gift-gate)
    A know nothing shithead (Banking crisis)
    A lying shithead (Signing statement)

    ADMIN: The spam filter is sensitive, and it “learns” as comments come in, so if you keep submitting a similar comment, it will kick it out. If you don’t see your comment in a timely fashion, please contact susanunpc at gmail dot com.

  • http://www.rabblerouserruminations.blogspot.com/ Rabble Rouser Reverend Amy

    So, his THIRD vacation in TWO months?? Holy cow – and we thought BUSH was bad!

    You know, it serves the media right. They proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that they were a bunch of sycophants who would do anything for Obama (except actually engage in journalism). He’s treating them just like he did the African American community during the campaign – asking for cut rates in advertising (yes, he did – spending almost a billion bucks but he wanted CUT rates from the AA community) and not spending any time with them (he still hasn’t bothered to go to the Black SOTU). But in the end, they still supported him.

    Clearly he’s learned he can act with callous disregard towards these groups, and they’ll still do his bidding, so why bother? He can break with protocol and tradition left and right, but they’ll still prop him up, and he knows it. Off he goes on Vacation #3.

    Pathetic. Truly pathetic.

    Thanks for this, LisaB!

    • lark

      I’d say Camelot is vanishing for good.

    • Ferd Berfle

      So, his THIRD vacation in TWO months?? Holy cow – and we thought BUSH was bad!

      That’s another record he wants to break, apparently, for the history books.

      • Docelder

        I wonder hoe long it will be before they start dressing “That One” like the marlboro man and have him chop some wood for the cameras? This TV reality show presidency is going to get real old… real fast.

    • Ani

      LisaB — great post!

      And Amy — this comment needs a post of its own — a lot of people do not know this info re his advertising requests of the AA community…

      • Ani

        And LisaB, in answer to your question, I think his arrogance is such that, as he is so spoiled to the fact that no one would dare cross him (so used to playing the race card, etc.) he expects it to stay that way. Also this is a very protected President — Axelrod rides roughshod making sure he is not without his teleprompter — who knows what might happen in a spontaneous moment.

  • http://BREAKINGNEWS.COM Oisafraud

    STOP blocking my posting!

  • Prem

    Doh! It looks like those journalists get thrown under the OBwawah Bus now—I wonder if they will finally get it that they’ve been used, and now abused—OBwawah’s typical M.O. Hmm? Maybe now we’ll see some truth in their reporting about him and no more of the fawning. This could get fun!

  • (trying to get over it)

    jeez – my husband is a lowly professor who NEVER gets even a full weekend off…my kids would love to see him more…did someone tell Obama he could have a normal family life in the WH? not like he has much work to do, right?

    GET TO WORK, BUDDY!

    • lark

      Maybe they said, no teleprompter in this one buddy.

      • (trying to get over it)

        BINGO!

  • pm317

    Comment by lark | 2009-03-12 21:37:48

    Maybe they said, no teleprompter in this one buddy.

    Ding, Ding, Ding..That’s it. NO TELEPROMPTERS!!!!
    You can’t deliver jokes off of a teleprompter moving your head side to side…

  • C.S.

    It feels like we’ve done one of those fictional slides into an alternate universe. It seems as if the Obama world is so unstable that one wonders why he wanted the job since it interferes so much with his lifestyle – he should have stayed a wannabe.

    I do believe that Mr. Soertoro/Obama is the first of the many presidents that had young children to put “spring break” ahead of presidential obligations. But since he can’t handle both, perhaps he should pay close attention to President Theodore Roosevelt’s reply when asked why he couldn’t keep his daughter, Alice, under control.

    “I can either run the country or I can attend to Alice, but I cannot possibly do both,”

    Time for Mr. Soertoro/Obama to choose.

  • Murray

    The best in-depth research yet on just how insulted the Brits are feeling over the Obama’s dismissal of their prime minister’s visit:

    http://headingright.com/2009/03/12/44-obamas-shaky-start-on-foreign-policy/

    It’s also featured in the Polital Machine section of AOL news.

  • Murray

    Political Machine

  • EyesOpen

    Barry Hussein publicaly snubs dissenters. This is equivalent to giving Hillary and John McCain the scratching ‘finger’ during campaign speeches. The press has been actually asking questions during the past week, moreso than ever. Funny that he is choosing to escalate a wedge with the press – first with Rush and now with this group. Can’t wait to see what comes next.

  • Sassy

    They have a first class team working on the teleprompter problem. He will eventually have one that fits around his neck like a harmonica player.
    The first prototype shorted out, so they are back to the drawing board.
    In the mean time, he cannot have a great deal of public exposure in a one on one situation.