President party boy The wrong kind of leadership By JOHN GIBSON Last Updated: 4:15 AM, June 10, 2010
Posted: 11:42 PM, June 9, 2010
Comments: 7 | More Print Last week's jobs report tanked the stock market; the president took weeks to assert control of the oil spill that threatens doom on the Gulf Coast -- but at the White House the Gatsby-like parties roll on as if happy days were here again.
Just yesterday, President Obama held another fun-filled White House event, a picnic for Congress members, complete with hot dogs, cold beverages and a fire pit.
All told, during the last seven weeks of spewing oil and rampant unemployment, he has frolicked and danced through three major White House music parties:
AP Fun, fun, fun: Paul McCartney serenaded the first lady with the Beatles classic "Michelle" at this concert -- just one of three White House musical fetes so far during the Gulf oil-spill crisis. * The black-tie tent bash on the White House South Lawn after the state dinner for Mexico's President Felipe Calderón, which featured singer Beyoncé.
* The Paul McCartney hootenanny -- a night of tributes to the former Beatle, which featured the president himself scooting onto the dance floor to join the Jonas Brothers in the long "la-la-la" closing refrain of "Hey Jude." (Plus, of course, McCartney serenading the first lady with "Michelle.")
* The Ford Theater event -- in which the president, taking a break from "kicking ass" on the oil spill, kicked back and relaxed to the song stylings of one-time "American Idol" winner Kelly Clarkson, among other B-listers.
It was one thing when the president launched his White House days with a round of Martini Wednesdays, Stevie Wonder concerts, conga-line dancing and Super Bowl parties. That was before the gushing oil and before the employment picture defied the Obama hope-and-change cures.
Now it's different. Now the president's fascination with fun and parties in the midst of crisis has not only reinforced a feeling he's out of touch, but has migrated down the chain of command.
Last weekend, Vice President Joe Biden and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel held a "super soaker" squirt-gun party at the veep's residence. Everybody ran around giggling and shooting squirt guns at each other. Members of the press covering Biden joined in, to their shame.
And last Sunday, presidential spokesman Tommy Vietor and Obama speechwriter extraordinaire Jon Favreau, both 29 years old, were spotted at a Georgetown bar, stripped to the waist, playing a game of beer pong with a gang of bare-chested buddies. (This game involves throwing a ping-pong ball into cups of beer -- loser drinks beer, winner drinks beer, everybody drinks beer.)
Meanwhile, MSNBC's Norah O'Donnell said on the "Morning Joe" program that she talks to White House staffers who are having nightmares about the oil spill. Evidently, Vietor and Favreau aren't O'Donnell's contacts at the White House.
Fine, folks in the White House pressure-cooker need to blow off some steam. But it seems the president and his underlings don't see any need to rein in their love of partying, even though regular Americans are facing catastrophe.
Yes, the president looks elegant and cool in his tuxedo, dancing to Jay-Z or the aging "cute Beatle" -- but there are people in the Gulf who can't pay their bills, and millions of the long-term unemployed who are on the outside, looking in on all the fun. Judging by the polls, the grumbling of the outsiders is getting louder.
The president may want to consider making good on his promise that all hands are on deck for national disasters, by passing the word that party time is now on hold -- and then leading by example.
John Gibson is a Fox News talk- radio host; his latest book is "How the Left Swiftboated America."
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