{"id":2542,"date":"2009-12-08T15:43:33","date_gmt":"2009-12-08T20:43:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/?p=2542"},"modified":"2009-12-08T15:43:33","modified_gmt":"2009-12-08T20:43:33","slug":"what-the-hell-is-going-on-around-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/2542\/what-the-hell-is-going-on-around-here\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;What the Hell is Going on Around Here?&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>So said Vince Lombardi.  The same question could be hurled at the Obama White House for its latest transgression against common sense.  First there were the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/worldnews\/article-1159627\/To-special-friend-Gordon-25-DVDs-Obama-gives-Brown-set-classic-movies-Lets-hope-likes-Wizard-Oz.html\" target=\"_blank\">inane gifts of American classic DVDs<\/a> to the British Prime Minister that weren\u2019t compatible for viewing in England.  Then the Queen received an <a href=\"http:\/\/articles.latimes.com\/2009\/apr\/02\/world\/fg-obama-queen2\" target=\"_blank\">I-Pod with pictures of places she&#8217;d been<\/a>.  There were <a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2009\/04\/09\/obama-bow-to-saudis-cnn-r_n_185281.html\" target=\"_blank\">bows to Arabian autocrats<\/a> and a diminished Japanese emperor.  Next came the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.time.com\/time\/politics\/article\/0,8599,1940537,00.htm\" target=\"_blank\">quixotic firing of Greg Craig<\/a>.  A couple of news cycles ago the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/2009\/12\/02\/white-house-social-secretary-testify-crasher-gate-probe\/\" target=\"_blank\">social secretary neglected to post a guest list<\/a> at a security checkpoint.  Now it comes to light that the Obamas originally wanted a <a href=\"http:\/\/weblogs.baltimoresun.com\/news\/faith\/2009\/12\/report_obamas_balked_at_wh_nat.html\" target=\"_blank\">non-religious Christmas<\/a> this year.  And as if looking to pick yet another unnecessary fight, there will be <a href=\"http:\/\/www.politico.com\/click\/stories\/0912\/w_h_nixes_receiving_lines.html\" target=\"_blank\">no formal receiving line for media members looking for an official photograph<\/a> with the President of the United States.<\/p>\n<p>Really?  These aren\u2019t calculated jabs to please certain political allies.  They\u2019re just stupid.  What\u2019s more, they indicate either a pettiness of character or disregard for the image of the American presidency.  Those in the White House should care that they are projecting sophomoric caricature of people in power.  As the new administration\u2019s first year draws to a close, its public relations blunders reflect a White House that looks much more like <a href=\"http:\/\/www.montypythonsspamalot.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Spamalot<\/a> than <a href=\"http:\/\/www.enotes.com\/history-fact-finder\/government-politics\/why-kennedy-presidency-called-camelot\" target=\"_blank\">Camelot<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So said Vince Lombardi. The same question could be hurled at the Obama White House for its latest transgression against common sense. First there were the inane gifts of American classic DVDs to the British Prime Minister that weren\u2019t compatible for viewing in England. Then the Queen received an I-Pod with pictures of places she&#8217;d [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[611,24,610,612],"class_list":["post-2542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts","tag-camelot","tag-obama","tag-spamalot","tag-vince-lombardi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2542"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2553,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2542\/revisions\/2553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}