In two short years, Barack Obama has wrested the crown for most self-indulgent president from Monica Lewinsky’s ex-boyfriend, Bill Clinton.
Graphic by Freeper paulycy.
Clinton’s most self-indulgent moment came when when he urged Lewinsky to perform oral sex on him while he took a phone call from a Congressman. However, the November 17, 1995 incident occured in private, the Congressman did not suspect anything was amiss and it was not revealed until years later as part of the Starr investigation.
Obama’s most self-indulgent moment was broadcast on national television this week when, in the midst of numerous crises crying out for American leadership, he took time to film his picks for the NCAA basketball tournament brackets for broadcast by the ESPN sports network.
This follows a two-year string of self-indulgences by Obama since he became president that has demonstrated to the world that nothing comes before Obama’s me-time.
Most famously, Obama did not interrupt his 2009 luxury Christmas vacation in Hawaii when an Islamist terrorist tried to blow a passenger jet out of the sky over Detroit on Christmas Day. Obama could barely be moved to speak to the nation about the attack which came within a failed detonator of succeeding.
Now, with the Middle East in flames and America’s closest Asian ally teetering on collapse from the triple-whammy of a 9.0 earthquake, subsequent apocalytic tsunami and multiple nuclear power plant failures, Obama has spent his time golfing, partying with the press, fundraising, hanging out with athletes, prepping for his NCAA brackets presentation and getting ready for the Obama family taxpayer funded Spring Break trip to Rio de Janeiro this weekend.
The White House Web site proudly displays Obama’s picks for the men’s and women’s tournaments. You, the U.S. taxpayer, paid for the posting and hosting of Obama’s picks in pdf format.
The posting includes Obama’s conscience-cleansing nod to Japan in his ESPN presentation:
As he does every year, the President filled out his brackets predicting the winners of the men’s and women’s NCAA basketball tournaments, but discussing it with Doris Burke of ESPN, he began with a call to stand with the people of Japan:
One of the things I wanted to do on the show was, as people are filling out their brackets — this is obviously a national pastime; we all have a great time, it’s a great diversion. But I know a lot of people are thinking how can they help the Japanese people during this time of need. If you go to usaid.gov — usaid.gov — that will list all the nonprofits, the charities that are helping out there. It would be wonderful for people to maybe offer a little help to the Japanese people at this time — as they’re filling out their brackets. It’s not going to take a lot of time. That’s usaid.gov. It could be really helpful.
How insulting. But that’s Obama. At least he didn’t say, “As you are filling out your brackets, say a quick prayer for the Libyans I betrayed by spending more time working on my brackets than on figuring a way to depose Qaddafi without getting him replaced by radical Islamists.”
Or, “As you are filling out your brackets, try not to think about the skyrocketing price of gasoline and food. Let’s party March Madness style. Woot!”
Even the lapdog White House press corps has complained about the difficulty of providing cover for Obama on his creepy bracket presentation:
Q. And final question: Is it entirely appropriate for the President to be addressing a crisis of this gravity as he’s standing before a white board talking about a basketball tournament?
MR. CARNEY: There are crises all the time and for every President. And again, this one is happening halfway around the world, and it is severe and it is important and it is the focus of a great deal of the President’s attention — as are the events in the Middle East; as are the agenda items that he is pursuing to grow the economy and increase jobs in America, make sure we out-innovate, out-build and out-educate the competition in the 21st century. It’s a hard job that requires a lot.
It is also important — one of the things I would note that the President did in that very brief interview on ESPN and ESPN2 was ask Americans, as they were filling out their own brackets, take the time to go to usaid.gov and make donations to a variety of charitable organizations that are organizing donations to help the Japanese in this very serious situation that they find themselves in. And so, yes, I do think it was appropriate.
The Obamas have told Americans they need to cut back on vacations, business travel and spending to deal with the ongoing economic crisis. Yet the Obamas themselves have shown no sign of sacrificing anything. Michelle Obama wears clothes, shoes and accessories that cost thousands of dollars and lives a jet set lifestyle. Barack Obama has spent over 300 hours–the equivalant of seven-and-a-half 40 hour work weeks–playing 61 rounds of golf since becoming president two years ago.
In just the past few weeks, Barack Obama has hosted parties at the White House for Motown and pro basketball, attended parties with the press and has hosted several Democrat fundraisers in D.C. and around the country. All while allies and critics alike have complained about the lack of leadership by Obama on pressing national and foreign issues.
Never mind all that, Spring Break is here and surf’s up in Rio.
Photo from The Chicago Sun-Times.
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