There seems to be an effort afoot at the White House to demonstrate to the world that President Obama, who has now been getting flack even from the mainstream press for being disengaged – me and you have been wondering where he’s been for some time – in fact DOES SHOW UP FOR WORK.
In the strangest “pool spray” I’ve ever seen, the pool reporters were escorted to the windows of the Oval Office to bear witness to the fact that the president is on the phone.
From the pool report:
At 11:18 am, the pool was brought to the windows outside the Oval Office for a photo spray. It lasted 10 seconds.
We spotted the president sitting at his desk, talking on the phone – his left hand to his left ear. He briefly fiddled with his pen. Several aides were sitting on the couches. The pool has requested a list but the pool did spot Tony Blinken, deputy national security adviser.
From the WH:
“The President speaks with His Majesty King Abdullah II of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. A formal readout will be provided later today.”
We were obviously not able to ask any questions of the president.
We have a lunch lid.
NEWSFLASH: We spotted the president sitting at his desk, talking on the phone – his left hand to his left ear. He briefly fiddled with his pen.
Here are your brave White House journalists gathering the news.
Not exactly Gaza duty, is it?
Et voilà, the result, last night on the homepage of the New York Times website:
There he is, not a golf club in sight. Even wearing his jacket in the Oval, which I don’t think he normally does.
And while I previously thought Obama was going to return from Martha’s Vineyard for a couple of days of “meetings” – before returning to his vacation – because something serious was going on, I’m now thinking nothing serious is going on at all!
During Thursday’s White House briefing, CBS correspondent Mark Knoller raised the possibility with White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest that that Obama’s White House stop might have something to do with skepticism about the wisdom of taking a two week vacation while the world is falling apart:
KNOLLER: Josh, you said you couldn’t say who President Obama would be meeting with when he returns during the middle of his Martha’s Vineyard trip. Can you say what the subjects of those meetings might be?
MR. EARNEST: I can’t at this point, but you can check back next week and we’ll see if we can provide you some additional insight into those meetings.
KNOLLER: Does he just want to meet with somebody? (Laughter.)
MR. EARNEST: Presumably if he just wanted to meet with somebody he could probably find people in Martha’s Vineyard who would meet with him. But this is an opportunity for the President to meet with some of his White House staff who will be remaining in Washington, and it will be an opportunity for him to consult with them in person.
KNOLLER: Does it address or reflect a sensitivity about the optics of a two-week vacation?
MR. EARNEST: It does not. There have been questions raised by some of our critics about the optics of two- and three-day travel.
I would assume that Earnest is not saying whom Obama will be meeting with because neither he nor Obama have any idea whom he will be meeting with.
But as Knoller put, he will be meeting with somebody.
76 thoughts on “Look! Obama’s Working!”
An opportunity. An opportunity for him to consult with some of his staff. In person. Huh.
Yeah, he’s had 5 and a half (perdona me, cinco y media) years to consult with his staff. Why start now??
sync w/ media?
si se puede!
If the press had had a wiff of self esteem they would have walked away from this foolishness.
The time for games is over!
My spell check keeps telling me I don’t know how to spell bizzare so I’m going with two z’s. A bizzare game.
Bizarre :-) I imagine if I were a pool reporter, I would have done the same bizarre thing. You have to admit, it’s unusual to see the president without his feet on the desk.
Bizarre: 2 r’s and only 1 z. Got it!
Yes, if you were playing scrabble andcould bluff your way through with the 2 Zs AND got a triple word score—-Just sayin’
He should have shown some concern on his face, lifted a brow maybe. He could have lifted his pen while pretending to be explaining something real important.
I agree with Moe the Press should have walked away.
You can tell he’s not actually working, his feet aren’t are the furniture.
O talking now on lawn.
Is Marine One warming up in the background ?
Yep.
He is running his mouth, before going on vacation.
Can you imagine if a Doctor had a someone on the emergency operating table, and he walked off to go on vacation?
My point, He should put off his vacation to concentrate on the World issues and Domestic issues.
Not to change the subj, but I have heard of docs going for coffee and letting rubes take over.
What? No comprende — compare him to who and what? Forget it.
In surgery, it is usual for residents and interns to open and close.
I turned off the radio!
I turned off the TV.
I would assume that Earnest is not saying whom Obama will be meeting with because neither he nor Obama have any idea whom he will be meeting with.
Winner!
I’d put money on he does know who he is meeting with and to announce it would reveal his unconstitutional amnesty plan. And I’d put money on Marine 1 ready to take off as soon as he high tails it out of the announcement with no questions. Safely isolated in a compound on Martha’s Vineyard.
Probably meeting with Hamas, a terror group that he has never called a terror group.
Elvis. There will be a photo op.
No word of any military armor was mention in his speech.
Someone just asked: How long will airstrikes continue, and Do you plan to contain or destroy Issil. Only answered with how they will get people safely down from mountain.
Did not answer her question about contain/or destroy.
Time table: Most important is Iraqi government getting unified.
This is not going to be American military solution.
I don’t feel better. Anyone else listening?
Is that Look! as in Look! Squirrel!? Several sites are repeating a story ranchers in southern Texas have told the sheriff who is investigating the murder of an off-duty border agent by two repeatedly expelled illegal Mexican gang members that they have spotted armed gangs dressed in fatigues going through their property.
BTW, the MSM have not even covered the base story of the patrol agent being murdered. Shouldn’t they be doing something better than peering through a WH window at a posing President?
Baraq owns Iraq
I read that article last night. Walking in fatiques in line with gun in hand.
America has to remember we do have fine fellow citizens who live there.
What a hoot! The WhiteHouse responds to critics of the “semi-retired”, “disengaged”, and “callow” B.Obama by staging the most ridiculous photo-op every done by a sitting President. (Well, maybe R.Nixon walking on the beach while wearing his Florsheims might be a contender)
Then, the return to the WH for a meeting with somebody that cuts into his vacay time is just as simple-minded and silly.
The polling must be more disasterous than reported.
I may be wrong, but it seems to me that every sitting President stages Oval Office photo-ops.
What’s weird here is that, instead of WH photographer Pete Souza taking the shot and releasing it to the public, they set up the pool reporters to behave like celebrity paparazzi. It was probably Souza who made sure to capture the paparazzi in that photo.
Wait, wait. Didn’t Obama declare he doesn’t DO photo-ops?
The real reason they don’t show his pants is because they are on fire, like liar liar pants on fire.
What isn’t shown in the photo is that while Dictator Obama is wearing a jacket and tie while sitting at the desk, from the waist down he is wearing golf shorts and golf shoes so he can make a quick getaway to indulge in some more leisure time at taxpayer expense after this phony, staged photo op.
Seriously, these propaganda creatures masquerading as “the press” are loathsome beyond words.
I think “press-titutes” describes them pretty well Junius.
Some of us here resemble those remarks!
Redemption for the members of the so-called members of the Fourth Estate would be amazingly easy – Start trumpeting the unvarnished truth about Dictator Obama and his communist regime of America haters and criminals. Same goes for all of the criminals and America haters in congress on both sides of the aisle. Reid, Pelosi, and Boehner would be a good place to start. Just how did these three amass all those millions on a government salary. Same goes for Dictator Obama and our First Entitlement Queen.
Oh, “press-titutes? You got it– hit it on the head, perfect! So true, sick and tired of these antics. The guy does nothing but talk out of 2 sides of his mouth. He said in an interview about Israel that “he’s not worried about Israel’s survival” Yeah, we all know that. But he is the worst, so stupid, Israel, a tiny country and BILLIONS (no exaggeration) of A-rabs want the Jews out of there and dead, and he says he’s not worried about their survival? WITH BILLIONS OF ISLAMISTS OUT TO DESTROY THEM AND THEY SAY SO EVERY DAY? OBAMA’S CRAZY.
Heck, the phone call was probably to make the tee time!
Amazing. We left Iraq because they didn’t want us there. Says Mr Not My Fault. A small petty man — blaming others.
And he had the nerve to say if there “I would have had to protect them.” I — not the brave men and women of the military.
So so pathetic. Blamed it on everybody but the dogs on the street.
He proclaimed any arguments that we should have kept a military presence in Iraq as “bogus” and “wrong” – being “peddled” by “folks” who are defending previous policy decisions.
What an a-hole.
One word describes this clown act: pathetic.
You’re very nice. I have LOTS of other words. Not that your word is not absolutely correct.
What a charade!
He was probably making dinner reservations or calling his bookie.
I was thinking was calling ahead to make sure there was plenty of Lobsta waiting for them at the MV vaca house. You know MOTUS would be pissed if not stocked up. Oh ya.. and butter.. lots and lots of butter.
Working???? Uhh, …. He might have looked like he was writing important facts down with his right hand… But Obama is left handed!
Whatever…(sholder shrug, head shake, eyes rolled)
Dr. Love
But Obama is left handed!
GREAT CATCH! And of course there is still time to hit the links today, weather providing.
Second flash! He even made remarks about Iraq–spider fingers clawing the air. This won’t be the stuff of weeks! This is all Iraq’s fault for no status of forces agreement–and even if there had been one, and Sunnis had been in the govt, this still would have happened. Oh, and they knew all about this ISIL (L not S, trendy now) deal for a long time. As ever, he looked peeved.
So true. He also managed to mention the “previous administration” as a reason for, well, everything that is going wrong.
The assembled Press asked the most silly questions and got the standard spin and twist answers.
I can understand their frustrations with this new war activity as they had proudly and slavishly praised the Pres for “ending the war” not so long ago, and now here he is – dropping bombs on Iraq.
Maybe MV will wipe off the hostile glare and put the fake smile back on. We all want that. Some ice cream, a Berenstain bear book, 180 holes of golf–all will be well.
By the way, one of his loyalest voters (kissy smoochy) asked me did I think this was Armageddon. Confidence may be slipping, Barack.
Most people know my take on “End Times”–it’s that with all the communication, we may be in them, but would never know…Bombs, plane crashes, invasions, wars, rockets, savages hanging children, dissolution of borders, kidnapping, beheadings, ancient religious clashes, nuclear buildups, contagion and pestilence–tweet it, pish tosh, move on.
Someone should have asked him if he still felt ISIS was a “JV team.”
That picture of the press scrambling at the window should be published front and center in every media outlet in the US — both the media and the president need to be called out on the myth that the president is a workng ceo and the media has free and unfettered access and reports independently of the executive.
He has the gravitas of a flea. He stumbled over the words and phrasing on his crib sheet as though they were written in a foreign language. No finesse, no emotion, no concern. Just an “I’ve got a helicopter to catch’ attitude.
I’m guessing this is the exact manner in which he ‘negotiated’ the SOF agreement with Malaki. In fact, Malaki himself expressed shock that Obama refused to negotiate – he ‘just walked away’. This never, ever would have happened with Bush. Bush would have stayed the course until all of the ‘i’s’ were dotted and the ‘t’s’ crossed.
It’s just a matter of time before we in the U.S. start to see the handiwork of the well-heeled, well organized, and most dangerous band of vicious killers on the planet. Obama left the door wide open for them!
WELL THEN SOMEBODY SHOULD CLOSE THE DOOR! WHY ARE’NT THE REPUBS HOLLERING TO CLOSE THE DOOR BEFORE WE ALL GET EBOLA AND BLOWN UP! NOBODY IS WORKING IN WASHINGTON, NOT ONLY HIM. AND WE THE PEOPLE WILL BE BURNED.
The Charlatan-in-Chief hard at work trying to fool the American people.
That is so funny, I nearly had Good Earth original tea coming out of my nose.
Everything is so posed & phony, I should be used to it.
I didn’t dare watch his Pre-Vacation Monologue. When he was done, did Michelle skip along his side and grab his hand for a photo-op of tenderness? Or was Michelle already aboard Marine One, tapping her fingers with impatience. Where are the dogs? Are the daughters, or at least Sasha, aboard too? Inquiring minds want to know.
Wonder if they’ll update a bike photo op while on the Vineyard.
Maybe put him on a mountain bike wearing a motocross helmet.
Keith, you’re too young to remember, but the title of your piece reminds me of the old basal primers from another era – the Dick and Jane series – teaching youngsters to read: “Oh look…See Jane…See Dick…See Spot run”
Obama’s entire presidency could be summed up in a collection of Pete Souza photos : See Obama sitting at his desk; See Obama boarding the Helicopter See Obama chowing down on a hot dog, etc. etc.
He doesn’t read much better than a first grader either.
It’s all BS and the media eat it up. He is returning to see Reggie and get away from Michelle for a few days. It seems the house they are staying in is not big enough. Someone in the administration told Obama to put on his suit for two minutes and look like he was actually capable of doing work, before his usual golf game. He works better at destroying the world.
Photographers are suckers! He was ordering a pizza.
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This should be fun, more vacation photos for Putin to mock.
He is on vacation, Congress is on vacation.
Is Biden on vacation as well?
Biden is always on vacation.
Everyone but most Americans. Pretty much covers it.
lol
No, Joe is out to lunch!
Just a thought…he’s left handed. Being a lefty myself you hold the phone in your right hand if you plan to make any notes…
I cradle phone on left shoulder and write left-handed. I And other than eating left-handed, I do everything else either right-handed or ambidextrouse. I am so confused . . . but not as confused as “lefty” Obama.
I see………Well Keith let me RE-FRESH your MEMORY ?
A few days After 9/11…..Your Hero George W. ‘ Chuckle Nuts ‘, While GOLFING told everyone on T.V. ” Now watch this Drive ! “.
Dissenting opinions are always appreciated. They help remind us we’re correct!!!
All of a sudden, he’s acting like Bush because he knows everyone can’t stand him now with all his rules and regulations and stealing money from taxpayers for his own private wants and desires. Meanwhile, he never stated that Hamas is a terrorist group? He will help in Iraq, but never lifted a finger to help Israel, our one and only friend in the Middle East whose getting hit with rockets day and night.
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